NOT GONE ... YET
Melo says he’ll stay if Jax commits to winning now MSG fans treat finale like Anthony’s final Knicks game
Carmelo Anthony wants to win next season or else he may seek that divorce.
Anthony came, played, was serenaded with one last Garden chant and then said afterward his decision whether to part ways with the Knicks will hinge on whether team president Phil Jackson expresses “a commitment to win’’ now.
Anthony said he will have his exit meeting with Jackson, with whom he has feuded, general manager Steve Mills and coach Jeff Hornacek on Thursday, though he won’t make any decisions on his future until he meets with his own army of advisors, saying it “won’t be a rushed decision.’’
Anthony admitted Knicks brass “might’’ want to trade him, and if that’s the case, he might well be “open’’ to it and would waive his notrade clause.
“I would love to be back, but there’s some things I’d love to see different — the mentality, a winning mentality, being committed to that,’’ Anthony said in the locker room after the Knicks won their season finale, 114-113 over the Sixers. “I want to win. Hopefully everybody else does.
“I wanted to win. They know that when I signed my contract a couple of years ago. That’s still my mindset. If that’s not the direction they want to go in — it’s communication. Just communicate. Communicate with me directly. If that’s the direction you want to go in, I’ll respect that. If it’s something you want to continue to build on, I’ll respect that, too. Just communicate with me and be upfront with me. I’m open. I’ve seen the writing on the wall a long time ago.
“It’s all on me. I have a lot of thinking and reflecting to do. It’s all on me at this point. I’m pretty sure the organization has an idea and thought of what they want to do and how they want do it. At this point it’s all on me.”
The Knicks clearly want to get younger and sources have told The Post that Jackson hopes Anthony will be agreeable to adding destinations he would be willing to be traded, considering it would be a very difficult trade to make. The Cavaliers, Clippers and Celtics were approached before the trade deadline.
“It’s a decision I have to make and figure that out at that point,’’ Anthony said when asked what he would think if Jackson tells him he’d like to trade him. “It won’t be a rushed decision. It will be a decision I really have to sit back and think about and figure it out. I don’t have to do it now. I’ll sit down with my team and family and figure this out and put what’s important at this point of my career — which is winning.’’
Anthony gave a cryptic remark on what it means to be committed to winning. He was disgusted with how Jackson talked badly about him in a CBS Sports interview and in a Twitter post, in which he compared Anthony to long-ago draft-bust Michael Graham while supporting an anti-Anthony column.
Asked about Jackson’s public slights, Anthony said, “When you talk about people indirectly, it’s kind of harder to trust that anyway, somebody talking bad about you indirectly you feel a certain way. You want that person to be straightforward with you.
The Garden fans chanted “We want Melo’’ in the final minutes as he sat on the bench after playing 23 minutes and scoring 17 points. He departed in what well could be his final game as a Knick with 3:03 left in the third quarter and didn’t return.
“It felt good,’’ Anthony said, smirking. “It’s been a while — to sit there and hear that. I felt I did want to play but, Jeff sat me down. It’s a great feeling to hear that coming from the fans after the type of season we had not just this year but a couple of years to see that type of support.’’
Anthony lingered on the court, signing autographs and giving away some of his paraphernalia as is customary after the season finale.
Asked if would be willing to expand the list of teams he’d accept a trade to, Anthony said, “I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen. They might say ‘ We want to keep you, but we want your role to change.’ They might ask me to come off the bench or something like that. I gotta be prepared for anything.”
Anthony said of course he wouldn’t agree to coming off the bench. But he admitted he thought he might be gone at this season’s trade deadline.
“There was a point after hearing about everything that was going on I was trying to figure out what were my next steps,’’ Anthony said. “But then again, it wasn’t no communication, so I didn’t know which direction to go in. But, yeah, there was a point in time I didn’t think I would be back here.”
“I would love to be back, but there’s some things I’d love to see different — the mentality, that.” a winning mentality, being committed to — Carmelo Anthony