Melo won’t knock Joakim for stance

WEST POINT — Carmelo Anthony wore a black Army ballcap on his way off post Saturday — a gift he sported all week. Anthony said he thoroughly enjoyed all three of his West Point experiences, but he was not ready to criticize Joakim Noah for boycotting the Knicks’ annual dinner with cadets in the mess hall after which an prominent academy colonel delivers a peppy speech.

In Anthony’s eyes, if Noah blew off a significant team function, his beliefs must run deep. Anthony said the new $72 million signee “talked to the people that he had to talk to’’ to gain permission.

“For him to take the stance that he took and really say it publicly and really mean it and really feel, then he’d have to really believe in that,’’ Anthony said. “I don’t think somebody is just going to say, ‘I’m not going to go just because of this without having a feeling or an emotion about it or really living that.’ That’s a big step for him to take. He must really feel the way that he feels and believes the way he believes.”

Anthony, who became a social activist regarding police brutality against blacks this summer, is the chief reason the Knicks still go away for training camp. After stints in Charleston, S.C., and Saratoga, the Knicks stayed at their Tarrytown headquarters in 2013. Anthony didn’t think it was conducive to team bonding and told general manager Steve Mills the club should go away. Knicks president Phil Jackson chose West Point, where discipline and team building are holy words.

“We like the environment,’’ Anthony said. “I don’t think what [Noah] said or the stance that he took has anything to do with the actual environment or any particular person, the cadets or anything like that. I think it’s bigger than that. I don’t think anybody should single that out. I think it’s a much bigger message that he stands for, it’s much bigger belief that he stands for. That’s his own belief. I’m not a judgmental person.”

Anthony has hinted the Knicks could do something special Tuesday during the national anthem in Houston for the preseason opener — ala Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling.

“We haven’t figured it out,’’ Anthony said, adding sarcastically “We’re supposed to play basketball and shut up, or play football and shut up.”