Carmelo Anthony unloads on Phil Jackson over Knicks blame
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Carmelo Anthony is not holding back his feelings.

The former Knicks icon has fired back at Phil Jackson following comments Jackson made about their time together with the team.

“I’m fed up with these people,” Anthony declared on his “7PM In Brooklyn” podcast. “That was crazy. Come on, man, what are we doing here? If I was such a problem for you, why didn’t you talk to me when I was there? Instead of pulling me into your office and showing me Michael Jordan clips of the triangle offense, just to tell me what not to do because he did it wrong—this is what he told me. Instead of doing that, let’s have a genuine conversation—‘Melo, I want to take things in a different direction.’”

In his upcoming book, “Masters of the Game,” which The Post got a sneak peek of, Jackson shares his version of the rocky relationship he had with Anthony. The book, releasing this Tuesday, also highlights Jackson’s views on the 75 greatest NBA players, including Anthony.

During his four-year tenure as Knicks president, Jackson was often critical of Anthony, particularly about his reluctance to adopt Jackson’s famous triangle offense. He elaborated on a discussion with team owner James Dolan that led to their “mutual decision to part ways” in 2017.

“I had this meeting with Dolan, I said, ‘I don’t want Carmelo back on the team; we’ve got to find a way to trade him,’ ” Jackson wrote in the book. “I said, ‘Let’s sit with [Anthony’s then-agent] Leon Rose and explain we’re not going to win a championship. Carmelo wants a championship; he wants to be on a team that has a chance, and he should be; he’s a Hall of Famer.’


Carmelo Anthony addressed Phil Jackson's characterization of him on his '7PM in Brooklyn' podcast.
Carmelo Anthony addressed Phil Jackson’s characterization of him on his ‘7PM in Brooklyn’ podcast. 7PM in Brooklyn/YouTube

“I said, ‘Unfortunately my relationship with Carmelo is kind of busted, and if he’s going to be here, it’s probably best that I go.’ ”

The Knicks had a 90-171 record during Jackson’s disastrous tenure.

“We had a poorly structured team, teams, rosters, those years,” Anthony said. “And [Jackson] was at the helm of that. Nobody told you who to go get. You had this certain vision of wanting to play in a certain type of system, which is the triangle, which I love the triangle offense. At the time, it didn’t fit the style of the NBA. We was the laughingstock of the NBA for being in the triangle. And I had to fight that, and I had to take those bullets. Not you Phil Jackson. While I’m taking those bullets, you are in the stands tweeting, talking about ‘Melo breaking the triangle.’

“This is the s–t that I had to deal with. I never spoke on him, I never spoke about him. I had probably three conversations with the man his whole tenure. We didn’t have a relationship. So if I was that much of a hindrance to you, you should’ve came to me and said it instead of telling me to bear with you — ‘rock with me, stay with me, I got you, bear with me, we’re gonna fix this.’ ”


New York Knicks president Phil Jackson watches game play.
Knicks president Phil Jackson watches a 2014 game from the stands. Anthony J. Causi / New York Post

Anthony recalled a conversation with Kobe Bryant, who won five championships with Jackson when he was head coach of the Lakers. Bryant, Anthony said, recognized that the triangle was a bad fit for the Knicks and for the modern NBA.

“Because he understood what was going on,” Anthony said. “You cannot put certain personnel in the triangle and just tell them to go figure the triangle out, you cannot do that. You need certain guards, you need a certain big man, you need certain wings.”

Anthony waived his no-trade clause, and the Knicks sent him to the Thunder in September of 2017 — less than three months after Jackson left.

“I sat in your office with you with candles lit,” Anthony said. “We had Zen moments. Now you wanna talk some dumb s–t? Go sit down man. You know what should’ve happened? You should’ve came down and coached instead of sitting your ass up there in the stands. Come down here and coach. You wanna teach the triangle? Come down here and coach and see what you can do. But you know why? The team wasn’t good enough for you to come down from upstairs and come down and coach. Because you don’t coach bulls–t teams.”

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