It would mean a lot more if it were all legally binding. But Knicks coach Mike Woodson was thrilled to hear Carmelo Anthony’s wife, La La, say the same stuff he offered two weeks back, that the superstar will stay put in free agency.
“I love it,” Woodson said Wednesday on his regular ESPN New York radio spot about La La’s Anthony’s declaration this week that she believes her husband is “definitely” staying a Knick. “I’m saying the same thing. I think he’s going to stay. I want him to stay. I think New York fans, they need him here.
“These past three years, the way he’s played, has been tremendous. If he ends his career here, I don’t think he’ll ever look back and say ‘If I shoulda or coulda.’… I just think Melo was built for New York. I hope he stays here as well.”
Woodson stressed how ultimately, only Anthony — who can opt out of his contract for free agency, though he can make the most money staying a Knick — will determine what course to take.
“When his wife comes out and says that, and the coach says ‘I think he should stay here…'” Woodson deadpanned. “At the end of the day, he’ll make the right decision for he and his family.”
Iman Shumpert (sprained right shoulder) and Kenyon Martin (sprained left ankle) are listed as “questionable” for Thursday’s game against the Cavaliers. Martin insisted he would play. Woodson on Wednesday said Shumpert was “day-to-day.”
“I really don’t know what his status will be until he wakes up and sees how he feels,” Woodson said.
Raymond Felton will face a pretty good “green light” guy Thursday in All-Star starter Kyrie Irving.
“A point guard who has the ultimate green light who can shoot the ball whenever he wants to,” Felton said. “It’s going to be a difficult task to stop him from scoring, but at the same time you’ve just got to make sure nobody else gets off. A guy like that is going to take 30 shots if he wants. You’ve got to contain him as much as you can, but at the same time what can you do with a guy who has the ultimate green light?”
Irving scored 37 points in a Cavs win over the Knicks on Dec. 10 when Felton injured his hamstring. In three losses to the Knicks last season, Irving averaged 31.3 points – including a 41-point game at the Garden. In seven career games against the Knicks – four facing Felton — Irving has averaged 25.9 points and 6.4 assists.
The Knicks assigned Toure’ Murry, Jeremy Tyler and Cole Aldrich to their D-League affiliate to practice with the Erie BayHawks on Wednesday at the team’s facility in Tarrytown. The move came “with the intention of [them] being recalled” for Thursday night’s game.
Woodson retold the story of how Carmelo Anthony almost didn’t get the Garden’s 62-point record last Friday.
“I called a timeout and told him I was going to draw up two plays, and if he didn’t get it done in those two plays, you were coming out,” Woodson said on the radio. “He didn’t get it done within those two plays, and I turned to Iman [Shumpert] to go in for him and Iman wouldn’t go in the game. Players were kind of blocking him. And then the next offensive possession, Melo [scored].”
Had Woodson subbed before that, “I’d probably got booed out of the Garden.”