So many years later, Carmelo Anthony’s time in New York continues to oscillate between a dream and a nightmare. A moment of excessive hope in time soon buried by more than disappointing years and a complicated exit. Especially for Melo himself. The former player sat down to talk with Dwayne Wade in the latest episode of the podcast The Why. Where he has given details of his rugged abandonment of the Big Apple. «When I left New York, it’s not that I left it. “Phil Jackson pushed me to quit,” says Anyhony.
“It was very difficult for me to leave,” says Melo of a city, a team and a fan with whom he always felt at home. Although at one point in the same interview he admits that, if the Nets had been in Brooklyn when they tried to sign him before coming to the Knicks, he possibly would have accepted. The fact is that, overnight, Anthony was forced to look for equipment. Although, according to what he says, it was Sam Presti who found him. «I will always support him. He called me at dawn and told me that they were going to do it with me. “That they believed in me and that I was the piece they needed,” he recalls.
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As is common knowledge, things did not go exactly as expected for the Thunder. Anthony had a hard time adjusting to playing alongside Russell Westbrook and Paul George. He didn’t finish finding his game, which was especially bloody in a playoffs that ended with a first-round loss to the Blazers. After that came Houston and the well-known drift that led him to be away from the slopes for more than a year. In New York, Phil Jackson, general manager since 2014, still endured a couple more seasons without pain or glory. Now, Melo returns to Madison Square Garden to a standing ovation each night.
(Cover photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
2024-02-15 19:00:00
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