Knicks Not Retiring Carmelo Anthony Jersey: 'F***ed Up!' Says Gilbert Arenas
New York Knicks legend Carmelo Anthony is enjoying retirement after 19 seasons in the NBA. A good chunk of his career was spent with the Knicks from 2011-17, but New York didn't have much team success while he was on the roster, winning just a single playoff series in that span despite his individual accomplishments.
The Knicks' lack of team accolades casts doubt on whether his No. 7 would be retired by the organization. If it wasn't, fellow retired NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas wouldn't be pleased.
“Where would Carmelo get his jersey retired from? He’s going to be one of those players, it’s going be him, Chris Paul, they’re in this middle realm where they haven’t played enough with one team to get their jersey retired," Arenas said on his one talk show Gil’s Arena. "You would think Denver, right? So then you would think New York, so, you know, this first-ballot Hall of Famer can go without getting his jersey retired. That’s f***ed up."
Anthony's biggest personal achievement with the Knicks came in 2012-13, when he averaged 28.7 points per game to lead the league in scoring. It was the second-highest scoring average of his career and it won him his only scoring title. That same season saw the Knicks win 54 games, the franchise's best tally since 1996-97.
As a team, the Knicks made the playoffs only three times during Anthony's tenure, but never made it past the second round of the playoffs, infamously falling to the Indiana Pacers in the 2013 conference semifinals.
If the Knicks were to retire Anthony's No. 7, he would join Walt "Clyde" Frazier (No. 10), Dick Barnett (No. 12), Earl Monroe (No. 15), Dick McGuire (No. 15), Willis Reed (No. 19), Dave DeBusschere (No. 22), Bill Bradley (No. 24), Patrick Ewing (No. 33) and Red Holzman (unofficial No. 613) in the Madison Square Garden rafters.
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