Carmelo Anthony: Phil Jackson 'Pushed Me' Off Knicks
Carmelo Anthony's relationship with Phil Jackson was anything but zen.
The former New York Knicks scorer expounded upon his dealings with Jackson, the 13-time NBA champion who served as the team president for just over three years (2014-17). Anthony inked a five-year, $124 million contract with the Knicks months after Jackson's arrival but things only soured from there.
Under Jackson, Anthony's dream of playing professionally in his native New York became a nightmare: the Knicks endured three consecutive seasons with no more than 32 wins, the bottom completely falling out during the 2016-17 campaign. Jackson's public war of attrition with Anthony and fellow franchise face Kristaps Porzingis eventually led to his departure from the team at the end of the year.
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Anthony was eventually traded to Oklahoma City weeks before the ensuing season. But, speaking on fellow NBA legend Dwyane Wade's web series "The Why with Dwyane Wade," Anthony blames Jackson for his de facto ousting.
"When I left New York, I didn't leave New York," a frustrated Anthony declared. "I got pushed out of New York, Phil pushed me out of New York. I struggled to leave New York."
Jackson, whose first two titles came with the Knicks as a player in 1970 and 1973, was viewed by some as a savior for the downtrodden franchise. But his championship expertise as a head coach with Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls and Kobe Bryant's Los Angeles Lakers did not carry over from Manhattan. Following the fateful 2016-17 campaign, Jackson flat out admitted that Anthony might've been "better off elsewhere."
With his trade to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Anthony couldn't help but think that Jackson's influence still lingered around the team.
"It took me back to (being) a kid. It took me back to (stuff) always being taken away from you," Anthony said of dealing with Jackson. "I did work this hard to get to this point, and it's just that easy you can just take it away from me with no explanation."
"To this day, I don't know what the explanation is. I can laugh about it now, but at that point in time, that (stuff) was difficult to deal with because you're coming from All-Star to I can't make a nine-man roster?"
Anthony's Knicks tenure somewhat derailed the rest of his NBA career, as he struggled in brief stops in both Oklahoma City and Houston. He was able to cap off his career in respectable fashion as a reserve with the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Lakers.
Despite Anthony's rocky Knicks tenure, his retirement has re-opened a conversation over whether the No. 7 he wore in Manhattan should be retired. As it stands, Anthony is the seventh-leading scorer in Knicks history, one of only seven to score at least 10,000 points in a New York uniform.
