If Carmelo Anthony plans to dig in with his no-trade clause to the degree he's reportedly said he will, then give him credit for a high pain threshold. Anthony answered questions about the Charles Oakley fiasco Friday, and described it as just another distraction for the New York Knicks.
"What happened is just an accumulation of incident on top of incident on top of everything that's going on, that's surrounding the New York Knicks organization right now," Anthony said after the team's 131-123 loss to the Denver Nuggets, according to ESPN's Ian Begley. "It's just kind of this cloud over us right now that we have to figure out a way to get out of it."
Anthony added that it's even worse to be the team's lightning rod during such trying times.
"I think you have to be in it, you have to be going through it, in order to understand it," he said. "From the outside looking in, it looks bad. And it's even worse when you're getting through it."
Related: 'Charles Oakley' chants erupt at MSG during Knicks-Nuggets
The latest rancor regarding team president Phil Jackson's obvious efforts to trade Anthony had barely settled before Wednesday's Oakley incident, when the longtime franchise favorite was forcibly removed from Madison Square Garden and arrested. Oakley has a tense relationship with MSG chairman James Dolan, who has seen much of the ongoing criticism for the Knicks' failures shift away from himself and onto Jackson in the last few seasons.
Anthony wouldn't criticize Dolan directly.
"This is his organization. This is his team," he said. "He makes those decisions. I don't think we should have an opinion about that."
Friday's loss was New York's fourth in a row and 23rd defeat in 31 games. Nikola Jokic scored a career-high 40 points on a nonexistent Knicks defense.
"We all should be embarrassed the way that we're playing," Anthony said.
