Anthony won't second-guess signing with Knicks
Carmelo Anthony's first visit to Chicago since rejecting the Bulls in free-agency turned into a dud, since he sat out with a sore knee.
In a recently aired documentary on the MSG Network, Anthony said he nearly signed with the Bulls and felt it was a “perfect fit for me in Chicago.” On Wednesday in New York, though, he shrugged off questions about his summer decision.
“If I start doing that and saying ‘what if' to myself and second-guessing and questioning myself, it won't be right,” Anthony said, according to espn.com. “For me, mentally it won't be right, so I will not allow myself to sway toward asking myself ‘what if' with this situation or that situation.”
At Thursday's shootaround, Anthony said he wasn't afraid to face the boos he would presumably hear from Bulls fans at the United Center.
“I've got to worry about how I feel,” Anthony said. “If I worry about if someone's going to cheer for me or boo me, I can't do that right now.”
Carmelo rests knee:
The Knicks went through some lineup changes throughout the day before facing the Bulls.
At the morning shootaround, Amare Stoudemire was being given a rest day due to ongoing concerns about his knee. But when Carmelo Anthony chose to sit out to rest a sore knee, Stoudemire changed course and ended up starting Thursday.
“I have multiple people say kind of just shut it down,” Anthony said of his sore knee, according to espn.com. “Or just take time off. But at the end of the day, it's hard for me to just do that right now in the midst of what's happening with the team and this season. So just trying to be smart about that.”
The Knicks carried a 5-22 record into Thursday's game, the worst start in team history. They were also missing Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith and Andrea Bargnani due to injury.
Anthony said he aggravated the knee injury during Tuesday's home loss to Dallas.
“Some days it feels like I can go,” he said. “The other day it was a little sore in the first half and I didn't have no lift in my shot, and in the second half the lift came back a little bit. It's going to be off and on like that.”
Bull horns:
Since the 2000-01 season, the Bulls are 23-4 against the Knicks at the United Center. … Charles Barkley was courtside doing game analysis Thursday, instead of his usual spot in the TNT studio. … Knicks president Phil Jackson used Twitter to defend the Tyson Chandler-to-Dallas trade. “Trades are judged in 4-5 year terms,” he wrote. Sounds like something Jerry Krause used to say.