Carmelo Anthony confused by Phil Jackson's remarks
In NBA A to Z Diaries, Insiders Sam Amick and Jeff Zillgitt will provide insight, analysis and revelations from around the league in a free-flowing attempt to make sense of this 2016-17 season. The latest entry looks at the unnecessary back-and-forth between New York Knicks president of basketball operations Phil Jackson and his star player, Carmelo Anthony.
SACRAMENTO – What is Phil Jackson doing?
A few minutes at New York Knicks’ shoot-around Friday morning – more than eight in all spent with franchise centerpiece Carmelo Anthony addressing the latest Jackson dust-up with three of the Knicks’ traveling beat writers – left that question front and center in my mind.
Some quick context…
Why does Phil Jackson keep poking Carmelo Anthony?
First it was the unnecessary ‘posse’ comment that insulted LeBron James and led to a Wednesday beat-down at the Garden by the Cavs star (and this equally-unnecessary moment of in-your-face bottle flipping in the fourth quarter. Then came the interview with the CBS Sports Network in which he openly criticized Anthony’s penchant for being too ball-dominant.
Anthony answered the way so many NBA stars do these days, taking to social media to let his voice be heard.
Tweet/Instagram post No. 1: “EGO is the only requirement to destroy any relationship. So, be a BiGGER person, skip the "E" and let it "GO" #StayMe7o.”
Tweet/Instagram post No. 2, which included a picture of Anthony’s favorite athlete, the late Muhammad Ali, pulling arrows out of his bloodied body: UN-Phased (MyLifeSummedUpInOnePhoto) #StayMe7o
As was the case with the LeBron situation, Jackson is yet again sending a message to one of the game’s elite players that he sees no need to have any sort of face-to-face dialogue about a sticky situation. Anthony, who made it clear that he hardly ever speaks to Jackson these days, said that the two have not spoken about this latest saga.
“We’re playing good basketball,” said Anthony, whose Knicks have won nine of their last 13 games and, at 12-10, are sixth in the Eastern Conference. “I think that’s the only thing that really matters at this point. Any negativity that’s coming towards me, or towards the team, I mean I don’t think we need it at this point – especially when we’re trying to make a run. We’re on a five-game road trip and we have an opportunity to do something special here.”
When asked about speaking to Jackson about the matter, Anthony said, “My conversations with management is limited at this point. I’ve decided to focus on what I can focus on, and let them focus on what they focus on. … I didn’t talk to him, so I really don’t know where he was coming from with those comments. If he wants to talk about it, cool. If he don’t, cool. In my eyes, it’s over with to me.”
Anthony made it clear that the door remains open on his end.
“I just feel if it was something he wanted to address, or he had his stance (on) something, the door has always been kind of open both ways and he’s always sent me a text or talked to me,” he continued. “If it wasn’t any type of problem or anything that was going on, I always welcome his conversation with open arms. I sat there. We listened. If it was something good he wanted to talk about, we talked about it. If it was something we felt we could (do) better, I could do better, we talked about that. There’s always been good conversation with each other, so I don’t really know what’s going on.”
The bigger picture here, from this perspective, is about Jackson and his chosen style as an NBA executive. All those years of bonding with players as a coach, of having the kinds of close-knit relationships with his stars that gave him the leeway to critique in this sort of manner along the way, and now he’s taking the 30,000-feet approach?
There’s not just one effective way to manage. But contrast this Knicks landscape to, say, the Golden State Warriors, where general manager Bob Myers and his staff are constantly in touch with their players and in sync with their head coach, and it’s hard to understand this approach. Phil being Phil, you have to assume he has his reasons, but they certainly don’t seem clear to anyone in the Knicks locker room.
“It happens,” Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek told USA TODAY Sports about these sorts of Knicks controversies. “That’s the understanding in New York, that things get blown up probably more than a comment here or a comment there, which is probably meaningless, turns into something big. So you roll with the punches."
LeBron gets the last word on Phil and Knicks
But why is Phil, the guy who knows a thing or two about the importance of chemistry and the star player relationship, the one delivering the blows lately? That much we don’t know.
As the writers who cover the team on a daily basis will tell you, the maddening part of it all for them is that Jackson won’t share his side of the story. He hasn’t talked to them in months, meaning this will remain a one-sided tale until he pulls back the curtain and says how he sees it. Until then, Anthony – it appears – will remain as confused as anyone else.
“I just think it’s always something,” Anthony said. “I’ve had to learn how to embrace that, once I got to New York, and it’s something I embrace. I know it happens. It’s New York. It happens. That’s something I know.”