One Knicks Trade Still Irks Carmelo Anthony

Carmelo Anthony was not so pleased with the New York Knicks’ wheeling and dealing in 2015.

The “Knickstape” era hit twilight in January 2015 when the team shipped Iman Shumpert and JR Smith to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a multi-pronged deal that fully pushed forward a metropolitan rebuild. Shumpert and Smith, along with Anthony, were some of the final holdovers from the beloved 2012-13 group, as other beloved faces like Tyson Chandler, Raymond Felton, and Steve Novak had already moved on.

Shumpert’s appearance on the “7PM in Brooklyn” web series afforded Anthony a chance to bemoan his departure. The deal was even personal for Anthony, as Shumpert and Smith got to work with his close friend LeBron James.

“I told Bron, oh that’s we’re doing?” Anthony recalled with a laugh. “When it happened, the only thing gong through my mind is Bron [saying] I know this is a chess game. I’ve got to get these [guys] away from him. [Stuff] is [messed] up [in New York]. I can use Shump and JR to go win a championship. That’s why I flipped out like that in the locker room.”

Shumpert himself recalled Anthony’s distress over his departure, recalling that “all you heard was boom, boom.” At the time, the Knicks were working through a brutal 17-win season, its first under head coach Derek Fisher and the second part of what became a seven-year playoff drought.

Anthony believed that, if the Knicks were going to crawl their way back, Shumpert and Smith would’ve been major reasons why.

“You don’t touch this nucleus right here,” Anthony declared. “Do you know what the f*** y’all just did? You’re going to send them to [James]? We’re building to go against [Cleveland!].”

True to Anthony’s vision, Shumpert and Smith had roles to play in Cleveland’s run of four consecutive Eastern Conference titles, including the franchise’s first championship triumph in 2016. The Knicks failed to yield much from the trade that also involved Oklahoma City, with the main additions being Lou Amundsen and Lance Thomas. Anthony himself lasted two more seasons in New York before moving on to the aforementioned Thunder.

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