Carmelo Anthony: It’s funny to me, right? When you sit back and reflect and analyze… I really had to peel back the layers of this Knicks–New York situation and try to understand what was going on. When you’re dealing with power—and people who only know power their whole lives—if anything starts to challenge that, you disagree with it. You don’t f— with it. You shy away. As a man, if I was that much of a hindrance to you, why didn’t you have a conversation with me when I was there? Instead of bringing me into your office showing me Michael Jordan triangle clips and telling me what not to do in the triangle because he did it wrong. That’s what he told me! Instead of that, let’s have a real man convo. Like: “Melo, listen, I want to go in a different direction.” The team was already… We weren’t good. That’s not a shot at my teammates—they know it too. We had a poorly structured roster. And you were at the helm. Nobody told you who to go get. You had this vision of playing a certain type of system—the triangle—which I love, by the way. At the time, it didn’t fit the style of the NBA. We were a laughingstock of the league for still running the triangle. And I had to take those bullets—not you, Phil. While I’m taking bullets, you’re in the stands tweeting about Melo breaking the triangle. That was crazy. I never spoke on him. I never spoke about him. YouTube | Nov. 4, 2025
“What would your counsel to him be about a full 82-game season? What would you tell him?” Shaquille O’Neal: “I would tell him to pace himself. You know, Phil Jackson— and I don’t know how he did it— but the three years we won in a row, he would come in at times and be like, ‘Hey, sit these two games out. I need you to rest. No parties, no rap videos, no commercials—just rest. But when you come back, I need you to average 40.'” “So, you know, Phil did a great job of managing my game time, my injury time, and he also did a great job of keeping us away from Utah. I don’t know how he did it. We always had problems with Utah earlier, before he got there. But right— notice we never played Utah. He’d rather play Sacramento or San Antonio. So he would come in at times and be like, ‘Hey, I need you to sit a week out,’ or ‘Hey, I need you to average 40 this week,’ or ‘Don’t practice this week.'” YouTube | Nov. 3, 2025
Q. The Spurs are 5-0 for the first time right now. Shaquille O’Neal: Listen, they’re playing great. Victor Wembanyama is redefining what a big man can do. Joker has already redefined what big man can do, but Wemby’s taking it to a different level: dribbling between his legs, stepping back, looking like Kevin Durant. He’s playing some excellent basketball right now, and I’m happy for him. I’m happy for the San Antonio organization. Q. What would your counsel to him be about a full 82-game season and how what would you tell him about? O’Neal: I would tell I would tell him to pace himself. Phil Jackson, and I don’t know how he did it, but the three years we won in a row, he would come in at times and be like, ‘Hey, sit these two games out. I need you to rest. No parties, no rap videos, no commercials, just rest. But when you come back, I need you to average 40.’ Phil did a great job of managing my game time, my injury time, and he also did a great job of keeping us away from Utah. I don’t know how he did it. We always had problems with Utah earlier before he got there. YouTube | Oct. 31, 2025
James Dolan thought the media would run Phil Jackson out of town. But it was Carmelo Anthony. In a book scheduled for release Nov. 4, Jackson delves into his tenuous relationship with Melo, how the Knicks contributed to the end of his engagement to Jeanie Buss, a previously unknown desire to hire Virginia coach Tony Bennett and his conversations with Dolan before a “mutual decision to part ways” in 2017. “Dolan said to me, ‘Are you going to get run out of town by the media?’ I said, ‘I know who the media is; that doesn’t affect me,’ ” Jackson said in the Carmelo chapter of his book, “Masters of the Game,” a conversational read on the 75 greatest players through the lens of the legendary coach and Hall of Fame scribe Sam Smith. “But Dolan felt it was too much. He said, ‘I don’t want you to go through it. I know what it’s like to deal with these people.’ I said, ‘Unfortunately my relationship with Carmelo is kind of busted, and if he’s going to be here, it’s probably best that I go.’ ” New York Post | Oct. 30, 2025
Run It Back: Amar’e Stoudemire explains why the Knicks underachieved with Carmelo Anthony: “Melo comes to our team, the ball isn’t moving as much because Melo requires a lot of attention… when he gets the basketball, he’s looking to score. A lot of the cohesiveness faded away.” x.com | Oct. 28, 2025
Last summer, Bickerstaff challenged his star to prepare for more physicality from defenses, almost predicting what the start of this season would look like. Defenses have indeed trapped Cunningham often throughout the first week of the season, and the intensity has increased. (Cunningham now sports a welt underneath his right eye, courtesy of being whacked by one of the Celtics’ big men in a comeback win in the Pistons’ home opener.) “Efficiency” has become Cunningham’s next goal, according to Bickerstaff. “The Carmelo Anthonys, the Kevin Durants of the world, you got moves quick enough [that] the double teams can’t get to — because in playoff situations you’re going to see more crowds, more double teams.” ESPN | Oct. 28, 2025
Melo on the Knicks’ chances to finally win a championship for the first time since 1972-73: I don’t know about winning one. I think the opportunity for them to get to the Finals … they have that opportunity. Now winning, that’s something different, winning a championship. But I will say I like the Knicks’ chances of coming out of the East. I think they had an opportunity to take some bumps and bruises over the past couple of seasons. And hopefully they learn from that. I think they learned from those mistakes that they’ve made and they’ve gotten better. Those guys are a year older. They’re more mature. They love playing with each other. We’re going to see what this new system is with Mike Brown. marcstein.substack.com | Oct. 28, 2025
Melo on the weight Knicks players carry because the title drought has lasted more than 50 years: Carmelo Anthony: You feel it. You feel it. Me in particular, because I’m the one that was leading the helm on that, right, so I felt that energy. I felt that pressure. I never allowed the pressure to sink in, but it’s there. You know it’s there. You think about it. You feel it. And you want to give those fans that [championship] so bad. Most people allow that pressure to just bubble up and build up and build up because you want to give it back to them so fast. So bad. With me, it was just about that journey, man, and coming out and performing every night on a high level, taking responsibility for whatever I need to and trying to, you know, get my team to win. Did (a championship) happen? No, but it was fun doing that. It was fun going through that process and building teams and trying to figure out … I always respect my time with the Knicks. marcstein.substack.com | Oct. 28, 2025