Knicks small forward Carmelo Anthony dreams of playing alongside another star player and wants team president Phil Jackson to acquire one, Al Iannazzone of Newsday writes. “I think everybody always kind of dreams and hopes that they can play with another great player, another star player,” Anthony said. “It’s a star players’ league. I think that’s what we all talk about every time we get together. ‘I want to play with you. I want to play with you.’ Even here different guys say, ‘Come play with me, come play with me.’ That’s always the mindset. I think everybody that’s in my situation, in my position, they all want the load off, especially the older that they get. You realize that you just can’t do it by yourself. Everybody knows that. You have teams, great teams, great guys — individual guys on the teams — that still haven’t won either. They realize it just doesn’t work like that.”
Anthony also relayed that if New York misses the playoffs again he would have to think about his future with the franchise, Iannazzone relays. “That doesn’t sit well with me to know that it can be three years if we don’t pick it up right away,” Anthony said. “I try not to think about that right now but in actuality you have to start thinking about that.”
Here’s more from New York City:
- Despite the reported strong belief that Jackson will wind up back with the Lakers organization and fiancee Jeanie Buss when he is eligible to opt out of his deal during the summer of 2017, Jackson does not have “one foot out the door,” Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv relays. “He’s totally committed, that’s the type of person he is,” a source close to the Zen Master told Zagoria. “He’s totally committed to the Knicks until he’s not with the Knicks anymore. He doesn’t have one foot out the door or anything like that. He bought a multi-million dollar apartment in New York, he didn’t rent it.“
- Center Kevin Seraphin hopes that the Knicks’ coaching change will provide him with more playing time than he received under former coach Derek Fisher, Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News writes. “I don’t have any thoughts. I’m not the general manager,” Seraphin said regarding Fisher’s ouster. “I just hope for more playing time. That’s the goal. It’s a new opportunity for sure. It’s not only me. It’s all the guys on the bench. It’s a new opportunity for us. We have to take it.”
- Anthony was officially elected Vice President of the NBPA’s executive board, the NBPA has announced (via Twitter).
The irony in Anthony’s comments is laughable. Note that, unlike, say, Wade, he didn’t stop his own greed from getting in the way of having the budget available for another star. And- of course! – if the TEAM doesn’t make the playoffs this year he may have to go elsewhere. Good luck with that. I am certain there is another team who is in need of an aging, expensive albatross. The lack of understanding how he created his own karma is amazing, as I am sure Phil would point out to him if he wasn’t complicit himself, Please stop looking externally for the reasons you are not winning, Mr. Anthony, and give us all a big break.