Carmelo Anthony said Isiah Thomas has taken the easy way out in already jumping off the Knicks bandwagon after their 2-4 start. Â Read more after the jump.
Anthony, who scored 37 points in last night’s 99-96 victory in Washington, was amused at Thomas’ remarks on Miami radio that criticized the Knicks’ acquisition of defensive center Tyson Chandler. The move formed the “Broadway Bigs’’ — a power frontcourt of Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Chandler — but also cost them in the backcourt with the necessary amnesty cut of their starting point guard, Chauncey Billups.
Thomas, the former Knicks president and now the coach at Florida International (which is off to another lousy start at 4-10), said the NBA is a guards’ league and teams can’t win big with just a good front line.
The indication was Thomas would have preferred the Knicks sticking with rolling the dice for Chris Paul through their master plan of preserving 2012 cap space.
Anthony views things differently than Thomas.
“I’m not someone who likes to disagree or agree with someone else’s opinion, but from my standpoint, I think we did a great job of building something, starting something in New York and bringing Tyson, me and Amar’e here,’’ Anthony said. “It’s a great foundation to building a house. That’s our goal.’’
Thomas pointed out in the interview with South Florida radio host Sid Rosenberg the Knicks may regret cutting Billups, saying he has been “undervalued’’ his whole career and the Pistons still rue the day they let him go.
“Of course we miss Chauncey. I miss Chauncey,’’ Anthony said. “We all miss Chauncey. As far as the Tyson trade, I’m excited about that. It’s easy for people to turn their back now when we’re not winning basketball games and the chemistry is not sound. That’s the easy thing to do.’’
Time will tell if Thomas is right. He has remained friends with James Dolan, but the Knicks owner no longer believes bringing Thomas back into the organization as president is the right thing to do, having been convinced by his Garden lieutenants.
Thomas has been steadfast in offering his services to the Knicks informally, but interim president Glen Grunwald hasn’t taken him up on it. In fact, The Post has learned, even though Thomas is close to Jamal Crawford, he was not asked to help recruit the former Knick last month when he was a free agent and supposedly considering a return to New York.
There were rumors during the Anthony Sweepstakes Thomas was whispering in his ear that New York was the place for him. However, Anthony disputed those rumors yesterday, saying Thomas never spoke to him about the Knicks.
