Melo Says He Will Look At The Big Picture When Deciding His Future With Knicks
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- At this point, the negatives are outweighing the positives and Carmelo Anthony says they are forcing him to think long and hard about his future.
Anthony spoke to the media in Miami on Thursday, prior to the Knicks' game against the Heat, and said whether or not he will return to New York next season is not contingent on the team making the playoffs this season, which at this point looks like a long shot.
"A lot of things are going to be thought about when that time comes. Off the court, on the court, just a lot of things are going to have to be put all on the table," Anthony said.
Anthony said what the Knicks tell him regarding their offseason plan will likely go a long way toward determining if he comes back next season.
"I don't think about it like that, that I want to make the playoffs before I make that decision," Anthony said. "That decision is going to happen regardless. That time is going to come. Me making the playoffs is something that I want to do; something that I never experienced before, not making the playoffs. That's a different motivation."
Anthony is averaging 28.2 points this season, but is in the midst of an epic scoring run, averaging 32.5 points over his last 11 games. The problem is the Knicks (21-36) have lost nine of them and are now five games out of a playoff spot with 25 games to play. His frustration boiled over a bit during an interview with the New York Times following New York's last-second loss to visiting Dallas on Monday.
"You score 40, 44, 44, 44, all losses -- you kind of ask yourself is it worth it," Anthony said. "I'm not going to stop doing what I'm doing. You can believe that."
On Thursday he opened up a bit more.
"Coming into this season we felt like we could make the playoffs and we could do something. Unfortunately, we're in this situation we're in right now, fighting for our lives, fighting for a playoff spot. But us making the playoffs and then that decision don't even have anything to do with it," Anthony said.
Two weeks ago Anthony said he would take a pay cut during the offseason if it meant helping the Knicks improve their roster. New York did nothing at the trade deadline and then bought out forward Metta World Peace and guard Beno Udrih. Further adding to the gloom and doom of this season was point guard Raymond Felton's arrest on Tuesday for gun possession.
"You sit back and you try to -- the little time you get to yourself, you try to reflect on everything," Anthony said. "But it's hard to reflect on it. At this point we're rolling with the punches. I was laughing with somebody, just saying, Murphy's Law. Everything that can go wrong for us is going wrong at this point.
"With all that said, we've still got to play basketball. Ray's situation is his situation. He's dealing with that. We support him. But as far as this goes, we've got to play basketball," he added.
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