MELO HAS STAR POWER
Named to East team after hinting he’d consider leaving Knicks
OKLAHOMA CITY – Carmelo Anthony is definitely an All-Star again. Where he ends up after the break is still up in the air.
The Knicks forward was named by Commissioner Adam Silver as the replacement for an injured Kevin Love, making it eight straight All-Star games for Anthony – and 10 overall. In the days leading up to the announcement, Anthony said he’d prefer not to get the final spot because he wanted the break and vacation with his family.
But somebody – or something – changed his mind. Anthony was selected over Miami’s Hassan Whiteside, Washington’s Bradley Beal, Detroit’s Andre Drummond and even Kristaps Porzingis.
The Knicks, coincidentally, play their first game after the All-Star break just hours after the Feb. 23 trade deadline against the Cavaliers – which is one of the teams Phil Jackson has contacted in an effort to deal Anthony.
The 32-year-old could put the kibosh on any trade talk by stating, unequivocally, that he’s exercising the no-trade clause in his contract
no matter how many grenades Phil Jackson tosses his way. But that wasn’t Anthony’s position Wednesday. His options remain open.
“You don’t know what can happen. I’ve seen a lot of things happen in this league over the years,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen or what can happen. Obviously we know what can happen over the next week or two. But I guess we’ll see when that time comes.”
To be clear, Anthony’s preference is to stay in New York and his main point Wednesday was that there’s nothing to discuss until management approaches him with a deal. At that moment, he will commiserate further with his family.
“We have had a conversation but that’s not a one-day, two-day conversation,” Anthony said. “That’s a conversation where you really have to put everything in perspective and look at from a big picture. You can’t have that conversation in one or two conversations because it goes deeper than that.
“Nothing came to me, nothing came to my table for me to look at,” Anthony added. “Until that time comes then they don’t need for me to even talk about the trade clause.”
In his ideal world, Anthony would want stars to join him in New York, rather than him leaving to find that type of help elsewhere. But in the three summers under Phil Jackson, the biggest name the Knicks attracted in free agency was Joakim Noah – and that occurred with New York paying way above market value. Kevin Durant didn’t even meet with the Knicks over the summer, following years of speculation that he’d consider the market.
To make matters worse, the handling of Charles Oakley and the way Jackson has treated Anthony have stained the franchise’s reputation amongst players. Anthony said he hasn’t tried to recruit free agents this year and acknowledged that the off-court issues could deter players from considering the Knicks.
“That could be a case in some situations. I think the way the deals are structured now, even if you don’t want to come there’s an opportunity for you to make more money,” Anthony said. “A lot of times players look at that, that kind of overshadows other situations.”
This summer, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul will both become free agents — and New York can create enough cap space to sign one of them — but the Knicks’ predicament has turned Anthony’s longstanding dream into the pipe variety. Unless he leaves New York. “I don’t know where that would be able to happen. It’s always a dream,” said Anthony, who won’t be joined in the All-Star game by either Paul or Wade (neither made the cut). “They’re all in the same boat I’m in. It’s hard to think about something else when Chris is going through his surgery and (Wade) is going through what they’re going through in Chicago. I think it’s hard to start thinking about that at this point right now. I think everybody just needs a break, everybody is waiting for the break to decompress and re-evaluate.”