ORLANDO, Fla. — Knicks point guard Raymond Felton, angry after escaping the trade deadline Thursday, said Friday morning that critics of his weight need to find another tack because it has nothing to do with his subpar season.
Felton received the wrath of Trail Blazers fans during the lockout year for being out of shape, triggering his sign-and-trade with the Knicks in the summer of 2012. But Felton had claimed weeks before this season’s training camp he had dropped close to 20 pounds since that season.
Nevertheless, during an injury-plagued year, Felton has struggled on defense and with his shooting, renewing cries he’s overweight — which he labeled as erroneous in a pointed rant during the morning shootaround before the Knicks’ 129-121 double-overtime loss to the Magic at Amway Center.
Felton said he actually has lost weight since the season began. But the Knicks still shopped him at the trade deadline as they looked to upgrade the point-guard position.
“Nobody can criticize anything about my fitness,’’ Felton said before recording 15 points and eight assists in 45 minutes Friday. “My weight is down. Even lower than it was earlier in the season. Earlier in the season I was hurting, playing with an injury. That’s just a cop-out thing. Somebody wants to talk about it.
“I had one year where I was out of [shape]. Now everybody wants to talk about my weight every year. It kind of gets old, kind of getting on my nerves. That’s all they want to talk about. Don’t make no excuses for me. If you want to say I’m not making shots and not doing something as far as basketball, fine, but stop trying to attack my weight all the time. I had one year when I was out of shape. That was it.’’
Felton’s hamstring, hip and groin woes cost him a good start to the season, but he has been healthy for several weeks. However, mentally he has alluded to going through tough times and The Post’s Page Six reported Wednesday that Felton’s wife is filing for divorce.
When asked if the reported personal issues have affected his play, Felton said: “That’s my personal life. It’s your life. When you’re going through certain things in life, it’s on your mind, no matter what. You try not to let it come into your job and to your workplace but sometimes it does. You’re human. It’s part of life.’’
Felton, who was traded by the Knicks three years ago at the deadline in the Carmelo Anthony blockbuster deal, declined to discuss his specific emotions about getting spared this time, but he said the criticism of his 2013-14 play has been a bit much.
“It comes with it,’’ Felton said. “I’ve been taking a lot of criticism, but I’m a strong-minded person. I know what my game is. I know what I bring to the table. Have I played the way I loved to this year? No. But I have been giving it my all. Of course shots haven’t been falling. But I feel I bring a whole lot more to the game other than always scoring the ball.” A lot of people just look at stats. Well, he averaged this last year. Now he’s only averaging this. Things happen in a season. You’re human. You’re not going to play the same way every year. You wish you can. But sometimes it doesn’t happen that way.’’
The Knicks tried to deal for point guards Darren Collison, Kyle Lowry and Rajon Rondo before the trade deadline and had internal discussions about the Hawks’ Jeff Teague, whom they face Saturday in Atlanta. (The Knicks backed off Teague because of his long-term contract).
Felton tried to be stoic about the trade talk and wouldn’t even admit to being relieved it was over. He sounded like a player on borrowed time. He’s got one more season left on his contract.
“Trade talk I don’t discuss — it’s nothing I can control or do with it,’’ Felton said. “I’m here. I’m a Knick. I’ll finish the season as strong as possible. It don’t really bother me. Lot of stuff was said, a lot of things escalated, a lot of things speculated. Nothing happened. I’m still here, still happy to be a Knick. My emotions stayed the same. I’m happy to finish this season out.’’