The two other reasons Knicks are glad they traded Carmelo
Saturday was a big night for Carmelo Anthony and his return to the Garden with the Thunder. And it was just as big for two other guys, Enes Kanter and Doug McDermott, who were traded away from Oklahoma City when Anthony made the move West.
“It always feels good to beat whoever’s out there, but It feels obviously more special to play against those guys,” said Kanter, the Knicks center who added another page to his tough-guy image when the Thunder’s Andre Roberson came down on his head and caused some neck pain.
“I think I’m good. There was a point I saw two rims, but I think I’m fine,” said Kanter, who has been battling soreness in his hip and his back.
But all the pain subsided through the Knicks posting a 111-96 victory, which for them was the storyline that mattered.
“For sure. It feels really good,” McDermott said of beating Anthony and the Thunder after he scored 13 points with 5-of-9 shooting — hitting three of the Knicks’ season high 14 3-pointers. “This game was kind of about him and I thought we did a great job of not letting that distract us and focus on winning the game. And it felt great especially being part of the trade with Enes.”
Now it’s just a matter of keeping Kanter (10 points, five rebounds) on the court. He insists he will play in Charlotte on Monday. But he also insists his old team is coming out of the West. Yup. The Thunder. Not the Warriors. Not the Rockets. Not the Spurs. And you do not really want to argue with the Knicks center. After all, he floored a coach who was considering drafting him.
“They tell the story, Tyrone Corbin was in Utah and he didn’t really travel around to teams for workouts and Ty met [Kanter] in Chicago,” said Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek, who was an assistant with the Jazz when Kanter came out of Kentucky in 2011. “The story goes Tyrone was putting him through drills and Enes lowered his shoulder and knocked Tyrone over. He was knocking the coach over, the guy that wants to draft him so I think that was a key to say, ‘Hey, let’s get this kid because he wasn’t afraid to do it to the coach, he’s not going to be afraid to do it to another player.’ ”
Or someone who disagrees with that whole Thunder viewpoint.