By Scott Cacciola | New York Times
NEW ORLEANS—Carmelo Anthony had planned to vacation with his family in Cuba and Puerto Rico. The costs of the trip were nonrefundable. Then the National Basketball Association (NBA) called.
Anthony, who remains the face of the New York Knicks, for now if not forever, answered and became the league’s saddest All-Star. A late replacement for the injured Kevin Love, Anthony on Saturday expressed disappointment that he had to be here ahead of Sunday’s game. He called his invitation a “downer.” But he also wanted to make the best of it, he said, if only because the event offered him a chance to play professional basketball without the melodrama of his day job.
“This is definitely therapy for me,” Anthony said. “I mean, being here, even though I got to talk to you guys, this is a break for me to come here and not have to deal with my situation or our organization.”
That situation, as he called it, involves Thursday’s trade deadline and the apparent desire by the team president, Phil Jackson, to send Anthony elsewhere. At the same time, the Knicks (23-34) have continued to deal with fallout from Charles Oakley’s forcible removal from a recent game at Madison Square Garden at the behest of the owner, James L. Dolan.
The Knicks’ dysfunction has been a topic of some conversation amid the fanfare of All-Star weekend, with several current and former players criticizing the organization for its treatment of both Anthony and Oakley. On Saturday, Tracy McGrady, who briefly played for the Knicks late in his career, joined the chorus, saying the team’s actions in recent weeks would hinder its ability to recruit free agents.
“Phil Jackson going at Melo publicly, like, what are you doing? You’re supposed to be on the same team,” McGrady said after it was announced that he was one of 14 finalists for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. “Like, you’re supposed to be encouraging your brother and giving him some of your experience and helping him become a better player.”
Jackson, who earlier this season accused Anthony of holding on to the ball for too long, took to Twitter two weeks ago to endorse a Bleacher Report article asserting that Anthony did not have a burning desire to win. In a subsequent Twitter post, Jackson wrote that he had been “misunderstood.” Jackson has not spoken to reporters who regularly cover the team since September.
McGrady said Anthony had handled the turmoil about as well as anyone could expect. McGrady said he would have taken a different approach.
“Phil has the arrogance to sit in the stands at these games, and I’m playing great basketball?” McGrady said. “I’d be looking at him every trip down the court or something. Just gazing at him.”
He added: “You’re going to be sending subliminal messages about me like that? And then you hide and don’t do any media? You leave everything for me to talk about? Nah, that’s not cool. You haven’t done media since September, and here we are in February. I’ve got to sit there in front of the media and answer all these questions about what you said? Nah.”
The incident involving Oakley cast a shadow over the Knicks—and the league. Oakley, a rugged forward who starred for the team in the 1990s, has been estranged from the franchise for years, a rift due, in part, to critical comments he made about Dolan. At a game this month, Oakley was removed from the Garden after being confronted by security guards.
After Oakley became physical with the security guards, the police charged him with several misdemeanors. Dolan later said that Oakley might have problems with anger and alcohol and that he needed “help.” Dolan barred Oakley from the Garden indefinitely.
Image credits: AP