LeBron James isn’t sure what Carmelo Anthony is thinking months before he can opt out of the final year of his contract and become a free agent, but he does know what matters most to his good friend.
“Just like the rest of us, you want to win,” James said prior to the Heat’s 106-91 victory over the Knicks at the Garden Saturday night. “That’s the No. 1 thing.”
James made it clear he doesn’t know where Anthony’s mind is at, but he did hint maybe the Knicks star will look elsewhere to become a champion, just as the self-proclaimed King did four years ago when he bolted Cleveland for Miami, where he has won back-to-back titlesafter joining forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
“You do something for your whole life, you want to be good at it, you want to work at it, you don’t want it to be easy,” James said. “But you want to give yourself an opportunity to win.”
Anthony has enjoyed a modicum of success since coming to the Knicks in February 2011, winning 54 regular-season games and an Atlantic Division crown last year and reaching the playoffs three times. Yet, he has just one playoff series victory in New York and the injury-plagued Knicks have struggled this year, with a 19-28 record. They are 1 ¹/₂ games behind the Bobcats for the eighth and final playoff spot in the underwhelming Eastern Conference.
Anthony has played mostly brilliant basketball, carrying the Knicks on his shoulders. He’s averaging 27.2 points per game — second in the NBA behind Kevin Durant — and 8.9 rebounds. He also set the Knicks’ all-time scoring record at the Garden on Jan. 26 with 62 points against the Bobcats.
James made sure the Knicks’ modest four-game winning streak — all against sub-.500 teams — came to an end the night before the Super Bowl. In a nearly flawless performance full of spectacular highlights, he poured in 30 points, and added eight rebounds and seven assists.
Thursday morning, the day after the Heat were routed by the Thunder, James showed up an hour and a half before film study and put himself through a rigorous workout, which served as a wakeup call to his teammates, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
“As the leader of the team, you have to do things that are out of your comfort zone at times,” James said. “It was trying to get my mind right.”