New York Knicks president Phil Jackson is trying very, very, ridiculously, embarrassingly hard to get Carmelo Anthony to waive his no-trade clause before the Feb. 23 deadline.
And he’s failing.
Anthony, in fact, seems more motivated than ever to stick with New York, according to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski:
New York Knicks president Phil Jackson’s public campaign to pressure Carmelo Anthony into waiving his no-trade clause is working to harden Anthony’s resolve to remain with the franchise, league sources told The Vertical.
“[Jackson’s] underestimating ‘Melo’s willingness to stay,” a source familiar with Anthony’s thinking told The Vertical.
…
Anthony has privately told teammates, too: He refuses to let Jackson run him out of the Knicks. The Knicks have contacted three teams – the Los Angeles Clippers, Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers – about possible Anthony trades. The Clippers and Cavaliers have interest, but only in cobbling together packages that include role players, league sources told The Vertical.
Anthony has privately indicated an interest in listening to trades to those three teams, but the Knicks have been unable to find a trade package that they’re willing to accept, sources said. The NBA trade deadline is Feb. 23.
Good for Melo. Seriously, good for him.
Though Anthony isn’t the type of player you defend this avidly, Jackson has turned him into a sympathetic figure. He’s trying to run him out of town in the crappiest way possible, and he’s turned the Knicks into the NBA’s foremost laughingstock in the process.
That’s not what he was brought into New York to do. He was supposed to fix, to reinvent, the culture. But now he’s trying to use Anthony as a scapegoat for his own bullshit.
Whatever you think of Anthony, however flawed he might be, the Knicks have officially failed him way more than he’s ever failed them.
