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Tyson Chandler felt like scapegoat with Knicks

Jerome Miron / USA TODAY Sports

The New York Knicks shipped Tyson Chandler back to Dallas this summer to help the disappointing team's chemistry.

Instead, the Knicks remain a laughingstock while Chandler has helped the Mavericks build a 10-5 start.

Chandler, who missed time last season with a broken leg, told ESPN Dallas that he felt like the scapegoat at times with the Knicks. Now with a more relevant, contending team, however, the former Defensive Player of the Year doesn't have much time to dwell on his former club.

"In all honestly, I'm so focused on the Mavericks that the Knicks are in my rear-view mirror," he said. "I don't mean that in a negative way, but it's in the past and I'm moving forward."

Part of the problem with Chandler in New York seems to be how open his teammates were to his criticism.

As ESPN Dallas' Tim MacMahon reports:

"I think people can take it differently and make it what they want to make it," Chandler said when asked if his leadership attempts were lost in translation in New York. "It also depends on where your mind is. If everybody is locked in and they want to win and they know I'm in it 100 percent and they're in it 100 percent, nobody's sensitive. But if there's other agendas, it's going to make things sensitive."

Perhaps players like Carmelo Anthony and other defensively inept Knicks couldn't handle Chandler's criticism. In Dallas, as Grantland's Zach Lowe wrote Tuesday, "Chandler has the standing to call guys out on their defense during film sessions, and he does it often, both he and (head coach Rick) Carlisle say."

Chandler and the Mavericks' top-ranked offense will get the chance to exploit the Knicks' defensive woes when they square off in Dallas on Wednesday.

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