Carmelo Anthony said he turned down his dream opportunity to retire as a Knick because playing time would’ve been sporadic and the offer felt half-hearted.
The former franchise face revealed he and Knicks “powers that be” discussed a potential reunion in summer 2022.
Nevertheless, the pitched role was “like today you might play, and the next six games you might not play.”
“I said, ‘Nah, nah. I can’t,’ ” Anthony said on his “7PM in Brooklyn” podcast. “The not knowing of when you’re going to play and not play, I’d rather not go through that. I’m going to bow out gracefully. I just had a helluva year in LA [with the Lakers] in my role. Basketball, that ain’t the issue. I can’t do that. That’s a helluva decline when I look at it overall, the overall big picture.”
The future Hall of Famer, who averaged 13.3 points in 26 minutes over 69 games with the Lakers, added that the Knicks — whose front office is led by Anthony’s former agent, Leon Rose — were also lukewarm about their pitch.
“I don’t even think y’all want me in that role, which is why you offered it, but you didn’t really offer it. That’s not the representation of New York Knicks No. 7 that we want people to remember,” Anthony said. “I think there was a hesitation of really offering me that position because of the response they would’ve got of me being over there and not playing. That would be more of a distraction than addition. That’s a distraction if I’m over there on the bench and the whole Garden is like, ‘We want Melo.’ ”
Anthony instead went unsigned for the 2022-23 season and officially retired in May 2023.
The Knicks used their final roster spots out of training camp on Ryan Arcidiacono and Svi Mykhailiuk.
He is seventh on the Knicks all-time scoring list after 6 ¹/₂ rollercoaster seasons with the team beginning in 2011.
He was a consistent presence at MSG during last season’s playoffs, leading to speculation that his No. 7 would become the franchise’s first number retired since Patrick Ewing’s No. 33.
Anthony said on his podcast that the Knicks used his roster spot on Taj Gibson, but that doesn’t make sense because Tom Thibodeau’s favorite center only played for the Wizards that season.
While that still might happen, Anthony’s swan song season with the Knicks never did.
“It was the vision I had,” Anthony said. “My goal was to always make it back to finish it out here.”