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NBA ALL-STAR WEEKENDFebruary 15, 2015Carmelo AnthonyNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK WEST – 163 Q.  What's your reaction to Amar'e getting a buyout? CARMELO ANTHONY: Man, that's the first question? Ain't going to ask me about the weekend? I guess we get right to it, then. My reaction when I first heard it was, which was maybe ten minutes ago, you know, it was hard for me to believe. I thought they were lying about it. You know, it's hard for me to have a reaction right now because it really hasn't sunk in yet that that's what happened, and that's what's happening. So I'm pretty sure once it sinks in, my feelings and what I have to say about it, what I think about it, I can elaborate on that a little bit. But just knowing that as of right now, just off the top of my head and how I feel right now knowing that I'm losing a friend, a teammate, a guy who I wanted to come to the city and play with, you know, one of the main reasons why I'm a New York Knick today was because of him. So to see him leave, to see the situation where it's at right now, I know what he wants, and you have to respect that as an athlete, as a competitor. You only want the best for your friends and your close ones. He wants to play for a championship is what I'm hearing. He wants to play for a contender. So I don't think nobody should hold that back from him. Q. Carmelo, a lot of people will define Amar'e's time here due to his contract. How would you like people to remember Amar'e Stoudemire as a New York Knick? CARMELO ANTHONY: Amar'e brought something back to New York that New York was kind of missing and needing for a long time. When he came, he brought back some excitement for the game of basketball here in New York. There was hope when he came back. People started believing in the New York Knicks once again. He was the main reason for that belief and for that hope when he first got here in New York. Q. You have Phil Jackson and surely he's a master in several things. What do you think is your best learning now that you are interacting with that master? CARMELO ANTHONY: I haven't interacted with him this week. As of today, just the few conversations that I've had with him. We all know in here his knowledge of the game of basketball and what he accomplished as a player and as a coach. So I don't think we need to run down his resume. The only thing that matters at this point is about where we're headed as a team, as an organization in the future. That's the only thing we can start preparing for. And we have to start preparing for that right now. Q. Carmelo, how does your knee feel? Were you expecting to play that many minutes? And what's the next thing for you? CARMELO ANTHONY: I wasn't expecting to play that many minutes. It was just one of those things. Coach asked me do I want to get out there and play, and just being here in New York and seeing the guys out there having fun, knowing I couldn't be myself out there, I still wanted to be part of the game, part of the guys, and just‑‑ it's here in New York. So I wanted to kind of just try to take advantage of that moment and this moment. Q. Carmelo, how did it feel to get that ovation from your home crowd? CARMELO ANTHONY: It was a great feeling. I will never forget this moment. I will never forget this moment. This whole weekend, I will never forget that. To get that ovation for the fans to be into it and to really understand what I was trying to do. So for me it was just‑‑ that was my way of showing them my appreciation back to them. By getting out there and participating in the weekend, participating in this game here on my home court. That was my way of showing the fans that voted me in my appreciation. Q. Melo, speaking of preparation, have you had any time this weekend doing some recruiting? Sorry for asking this question. CARMELO ANTHONY: It's been the number one question this whole weekend. Q. I know. The last question is, what were you thinking when you saw Zach LaVine's first two dunks and how did you react? CARMELO ANTHONY: I haven't done any recruiting. A weekend like this guys don't really want to talk about basketball. Guys just want to come have a good time and enjoy the weekend and kind of decompress a little bit and get away from kind of the game of basketball for a moment. So, no, to answer your first question, no, I didn't. I wouldn't want to put that on guys, just ask them about coming here to New York and playing in New York. When that time comes, that time will come. If guys want to come here, they feel likethey have a shot at coming here, I'm all open for any conversations and sitting down with them and just talking to them man to man about what New York is about. So until that time, no. And yes, I did see Zach LaVine. Somebody asked me last week who I had in the Dunk Contest, and he was one of my sleepers that I thought was going to win the Dunk Contest. He did it. He did it effortlessly. He was smooth with it. And he has a bright future ahead of him. Q. I know you said you couldn't be yourself tonight. Just what are your thoughts with the knee? Have you made a decision? Is it time now? CARMELO ANTHONY: No, to be honest with you, I haven't made a decision yet. I haven't even thought about it. I just want to get through tonight and just tomorrow I'll have a clear mind and start putting things into play. Q. You talked before about the rest helping, but didn't seem this time that you got what you got before. CARMELO ANTHONY: Yeah, no, last time when I was able to rest, I was able to at least train and work out and do things like that. I just wasn't actually playing in the games. I was doing everything else to prepare for that. Now I haven't played since Monday. I haven't did nothing. Maybe lift some weights a couple of days here and there. But it was no running; there was none of that. I didn't really think I was going to be able to go out there and do what I did tonight, just as far as running up and down the basketball court, because I haven't tried it since last Monday. Q.  Were you holding back a little? Were you playing a little tentative, not wanting to risk anything? CARMELO ANTHONY: Yeah. I was out there just trying to enjoy the game and just have fun. I didn't want to go full speed, because I didn't know‑‑ I didn't want to take that chance. Q. There's still 29 games left in the season. You're 12 1/2 games behind the eighth spot. Do you guys and New York Knicks still believe you can make a run with or without you? CARMELO ANTHONY: Wouldn't that be nice? That would be one hell of a story, right? Especially in the East, anything is possible. We won't count that out. You know, I think at this point in the season as a team, I don't think we are playing the record. I think we're more playing for a sense of pride, having some type of ego to go out there and play basketball the right way. Trying to get better in practice and kind of taking advantage of everything that we have going on. I want guys to get better and have fun. Don't look at the record. Just play ball the right way. The results are the results. Whether we win or whether we lose, we know we go out there and we give it our all. Q. Sorry to go back to Amar'e again. Do you plan on calling him tonight? What would you imagine that's going to go like? CARMELO ANTHONY: I don't think I will reach out to him tonight. I still got to kind of decompress from my night and this whole weekend. I know there's a lot going on for him emotionally, mentally. So I probably don't give him a call until tomorrow, when things kind of die down for him. I know things are very tense right now with him. So I don't really know how he's feeling about the situation. I really don't have all the details on the situation. It was hard to speak on that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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