Carmelo Anthony Case Study

The battle between New York Knicks team president Phil Jackson and All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony continues as we approach NBA Draft night.

The controversial comments made last month by New York Knicks team president Phil Jackson caused a stir around the NBA. It garnered plenty of backlash from not only players but many other members of the sports media squarely putting him in the forefront of the team's problems the past few seasons. The constant public urging to trade All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony has yet to let up as the former NBA coach of the year is still hoping he waives the no trade clause in his contract.

In a short media scrum during day one of the NBA Draft combine in Chicago, Jackson continued to push the notion that Anthony isn't wanted in New York next season. Jackson showing no signs of retracting from his comments last month calmly explained the team's mindset to move on and that Anthony would be better suited chasing a …show more content…
I think I expressed what I felt [in April]. I can’t express it any better. I thought it was well said, even if a lot of you [in the media] didn’t feel that way. We like him to have success. The opportunity is narrowing. We’d just like for him to have success somewhere. We’re not going to be there. Hopefully we’ll maybe be a playoff team next year. It would be tough to consider us possible champions.”

As the words from Jackson seemed supportive to Anthony who is a veteran still looking for a championship ring it's still a very blatant statement to ask the team's leading scorer to leave. The initial statements last month from Jackson garnered the attention of Michele Roberts who serves as the executive director of the National Basketball Players Association. Roberts alerted her displeasure with the comments to NBA commissioner Adam Silver and had plenty more to say on the issue during an interview with The Vertical.

“I think Phil was deliberately trying to shame ‘Melo out of the

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