NBA

Knicks’ Anthony says shoulder ‘much better,’ will avoid surgery

Carmelo Anthony felt great about a lot of things yesterday — his “dream’’ of restoring basketball courts at Brooklyn’s Red Hook Apartments where he grew up being just one of them.

Anthony, who winced often during the Knicks’ second-round loss against the Pacers, said his left shoulder is doing very well and put the kibosh on speculation he could need surgery.

Anthony injured the shoulder late in the Celtics series and played in pain in the six-game defeat to Indiana after which it was revealed he played with a small tear in his labrum.

The Post reported he would rehab the shoulder and not undergo surgery, but reports suggested surgery was still not ruled out if it didn’t heal in three weeks.

“Much better,’’ Anthony said after the Red Hook ceremony. “The shoulder feels much better. I had four, five weeks to let it rest and heal up. It’s not 100 percent yet, but it’s much better.’’

Asked if it’s still possible of surgery down the road, Anthony said: “No, I don’t think no surgery is needed.’’

Knicks general manager Glen Grunwald seconded Anthony’s remarks, saying: “We got good reports from our doctors today.”

Asked if there was a chance Anthony could re-injure the shoulder, Grunwald said, “Hopefully it’s a non-issue going forward, but there are no guarantees.”

Anthony is off to China next week to do some more Jordan brand appearances so he will miss the free-agency period. The Post reported after the Knicks being knocked out of the playoffs, Anthony told a confidant he hoped the Knicks get him a secondary scorer.

Anthony declined to be specific yesterday and said he’s not making public demands.

“It’s kind of hard to say you need this piece or that piece,’’ he said. “I won’t whine or complain about anything. All I can do is tighten up my belt and keep on moving and going and get the troops going.’’Anthony said he intended to watch last night’s draft where the Knicks had the 24th pick and took Michigan’s Tim Hardaway Jr., son of NBA great Tim Hardaway. Iman Shumpert said he was rooting for the Knicks to take Glen Rice Jr., his former classmate, but Anthony made no such predictions.

“We’ll see what happens,’’ he said. “Those guys [management] have been working on this situation, this opportunity for a long time. I’ll sit back and watch and see who’s going to be the newest Knick. After the first five, it’s all pretty even.’’’

Anthony knows the Knicks can use a point guard now that Jason Kidd retired, but he joked about the defection to Brooklyn.

“I talked to Coach Jason,’’ he said. “We’ll continue to have that relationship. I wish him all the luck. I was kind of a little upset he went across the bridge and took our plays and takes them over to Brooklyn. We laugh and joke about that. [But] he deserves it.’’

That the Pacers took Miami to seven games did nothing to soothe Anthony’s psyche.

“I never look at it like that,’’ Anthony said. “Indiana beat us. We lost. We’ll get better this summer.’’

Anthony was genuinely moved by yesterday’s ceremony. The one decaying court was expanded to two sparkling ones — with “Melo’’ inscribed in the midcourt circle.

“I want you to use it every day, as much as you can,” Anthony said to the crowd. “If it gets messed up, no problem, we’ll repaint it. That means you’re using it.’’

Anthony moved from Red Hook to Baltimore at age 10, but still has some relatives living there.

Anthony said he plans to build seven courts a year and has already done so in Baltimore and Puerto Rico, where his father was born.

“It all started right here,’’ Anthony said. “This is for the kids. As a kid I had a court to go to. I had somewhere to go to play. I had a place to go, a safe haven. I had something to look forward to.’’