Carmelo Anthony was traded from the New York Knicks to the Oklahoma City Thunder last month in a blockbuster deal. Prior to his arrival in OKC, Anthony was dealing with constant drama in New York with trade rumors every season. Anthony clashed with Knicks’ president Phil Jackson on numerous occasions. The Knicks finally decided to part ways with Jackson in July.
Anthony has now opened up about the toxic aftermath of the trade with the Knicks in an interview with Marc Stein of the New York Times. He said that the reason why it took so long for New York to trade him was that Jackson wanted to trade him for a “bag of chips,” which is essentially nothing.
“When I signed back with the Knicks in 2014, I wanted to be in New York and I believed in Phil. Then last year it went to: I was being pushed out. There were things being said about me that I didn’t know where they were coming from.”
Anthony also added that he and Jackson only spoke twice over the course of the 2016-2017 season. During Anthony’s tenure in New York, the team only made one playoff appearance. This was in 2012 in which the Knicks won the Atlantic division but fell in the first round to the Indiana Pacers. In 2017, Anthony has a legitimate chance at finally winning a championship with 2016-17 MVP Russell Westbrook and newly acquired all-star Paul George.