UPDATE:
Carmelo Anthony has apologized for what happened last night:
See original story below.
With four minutes remaining in the Trail Blazers/Knicks game at Madison Square Garden last night, the Knicks were trailing by about 20 points when one fan seated near New York owner James Dolan decided that he had seen enough. So he reportedly started yelling, “You guys suck,” at Carmelo Anthony over and over and over again until the Knicks superstar was finally forced to respond to him. According to the New York Daily News, Carmelo looked up at the fan, pointed at Dolan, and said, “Ask for your money back.”
The fan was escorted out of the arena a few minutes later, but it’s clear that Knicks fans are not happy with the product that the team is putting out on the court right now. The Knicks have lost 15 of their last 18 games, and they are just 2-6 since firing former head coach Derek Fisher last month. But Carmelo spoke with the Daily News after the game last night and said that he feels there’s no place for fans like the one he exchanged words with last night.
“He kept calling my name, calling my name, saying, ‘You guys suck, you guys suck,’” he said. “At that point, I was trying to gather myself and I turned around. All I did was point at Dolan and told him, ‘Look, the owner’s right there. Ask for your money back.’ He’s calling me and telling me he’s never coming to another game and we suck. Just don’t want to hear that. I pointed to the owner and told him you deal with that with him. Maybe you can get your money back.”
However, despite his obvious unhappiness with the fan, Carmelo—who got rejected by the rim on a dunk attempt during the game—also admitted that he’s just as frustrated as many of the Knicks fans are right now.
“It gets frustrating,” he said after the team’s 104-85 loss to Portland. “The losing gets frustrating, disappointing. The way that we ended that game was disappointing. At that point, I think my head was in the towel. I was just trying to breathe, just trying to relax, kind of gather myself a little bit at that point.”
The Daily News pointed out that, while Carmelo did involve Dolan in his exchange with the heckler last night, he remains on good terms with the Knicks owner. But if the Knicks continue to slide, he could be forced to seriously consider the idea of waiving his no-trade clause and heading to a new team this summer.
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[via New York Daily News]
