If you listened to what Dwyane Wade said about Carmelo Anthony earlier this week, you’d think that the Knicks’ forward would end up retiring a Knicks. Based on what Wade had to say, Anthony wants to spend the rest of his career in the Big Apple.
There’s just one problem: Wade’s quotes don’t consider how Anthony would react if the team didn’t want him anymore. That would throw a bit of a monkey wrench into Anthony’s plan to stay in New York, and based on a quote he gave on Sunday, he’s prepared to discuss a trade if that’s the case.
Carmelo: "If they feel like my time in New York is over I guess that’s a conversation we should have."
— Frank Isola (@TheFrankIsola) January 15, 2017
Anthony also specified that he has not waived his no-trade clause, which he would need to do if the team wanted to move him.
https://twitter.com/FisolaNYDN/status/820775069261713408
This is all huge. Anthony gets thrown around in trade rumors all the time, but this is the first time he’s ever sounded willing to move on from the Knicks. The reason why, at least according to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News, is that Anthony was put off by something written about him that he believes contained many of Phil Jackson’s thoughts.
Carmelo seemed to suggest that what Phil Jackson's friend, Charley Rosen, wrote about him may be Phil's thoughts as well.
— Frank Isola (@TheFrankIsola) January 15, 2017
The article, published by FanRag Sports, was written on Jan. 12 and included the following passages about Anthony.
CARMELO ANTHONY’s legs are going, going, almost gone. As ever, he’s still a dangerous scorer but resists any offensive game plan that limits his one-on-one adventures. Moreover, his sticky fingers causes whatever ball-and-player movement is in effect to come to a grinding stop.
Since Melo has been mostly shooting blanks in the clutch — he was scoreless in the fourth quarter last night — it’s really a dead stop.
Also, while he’s never been accused of playing defense, Anthony is intent on saving even more steps on this end of the game to conserve his energy for offense.
…
All of the above being teams that are on the cusp of making serious challenges to advance deep into the playoffs. But does anybody want to dispense with a rotation player, or a young sub and/or a first-round draft pick?
This scenario is highly doubtful.
But in the wonderful and wacky world of the NBA, anything is possible.
The only sure thing is that Carmelo Anthony has outlived his usefulness in New York.
Those could all be written off as New York tabloid fodder, but if these thoughts are really shared by Jackson, then things get a little more complicated. If a random writer says an aging athlete’s legs are shot and says he’s “outlived his usefulness,” that’s one thing.
But if Jackson is feeding these things to Rosen, it would absolutely seem like an attempt by the Knicks’ front office to force Anthony out of town (if you have doubts, head to the section about Jackson, which talks about him in glowing terms and can be construed as proof it was written with some of his input). It’s totally possible this is nothing and Rosen is speaking for himself. Anthony, however, seems to think that this isn’t the case.
Either way, there is absolutely some serious friction between the Knicks’ front office and their longtime star. Unless everything gets worked out, maybe we could see Anthony somewhere other than Manhattan sometime soon.
