Ah, the New York Knicks, the absolute model of organizational consistency. Once again, the Knicks are in the news for the wrong reason.
This time, as has been the case for the past couple of seasons, the catalyst behind the drama is team president Phil Jackson. Jackson, who coached Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant to a combined 11 championships, recently criticized Knicks star Carmelo Anthony. The basis behind the public comments was Anthony’s tendency to hold the ball for too long.
Well, as expected, Anthony did not take too kindly to Jackson’s comments in the media. The star forward responded with the following (via Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News):
“At the end of the day we’re playing good basketball,” Anthony said. “That’s the only thing that matters at this point. So any negativity that’s coming towards me or towards the team, I don’t think we need it at this point…
“I feel like we’re playing good basketball, and just to have a temporary black cloud over our heads,” he said. “I don’t know when the comments were made or the gist of them, I just know something was said.”
That came with a couple of Instagram posts by Anthony that were pretty obviously directed towards Phil.
Melo’s probably got the winning side here. Jackson is right about Anthony’s issue (duh, he’s a hall of fame coach). But that public criticism while the Knicks are playing surprisingly good basketball is totally unnecessary. Next time, Phil should probably talk to Carmelo Anthony in private.
