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Knicks News: Carmelo Anthony Says Health Is The Most Important Thing

ByChip Murphy|

Carmelo Anthony was surrounded by a cloud of doubt for the entire offseason. Doubt about his true feelings about Phil Jackson and Kristaps Porzingis, doubt about his health, and doubt about whether he even wants to be on the team anymore.

Since he started practicing with his new-look team, Anthony has given every reason to believe he is as happy to be a Knick now as he was when he forced his way out of Denver.

He is playing like a man on a mission in the preseason.

Anthony has attributed his hot shooting start (18-25 in two games) to his health: both physical and mental, per Ian Begley of ESPN.com.

"“The most important thing is being healthy,” Anthony said late Friday night. “When you’re healthy, everything kind of falls into place mentally. There’s a lot of clarity for me at this moment where I can just play ball and not worry about [a] tick-tack injury or having surgery or things like that — and I can just help my team.”"

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Anthony’s New York Knicks fed off his shooting en route to a 115-104 win over the Washington Wizards. Anthony was in midseason form as he drained four straight jump shots at the end of the second quarter. With his patented pull up from the wing style, Anthony raised the hopes of every Knick fan in the process, and earned praise from head coach Derek Fisher.

"“It’s more about the mindset that you see and his approach to the game,” Fisher said. “He’s being aggressive. He’s making passes when he should make passes. He’s putting in effort on the defensive end and he’s really leading our guys in the direction that we want them to go.”"

Anthony has had plenty to deal with mentally. No superstar in sports has been slighted more this summer than Carmelo Anthony. He should be traded. Maybe he even wants to be traded. He disagrees with the Porzingis pick and is mad with Phil over it. He’s not a franchise player anymore oh by the way his wife cheated on him. The guy’s showing serious guts to walk back onto the court like none of this happened. Without exploding on Knicks’ media day.

It’s incredibly early. It’s still just the preseason. But this has to feel good for Melo. Just watching the ball go in the basket against a good team on the road regardless of the circumstances. He said on Friday that the trainers wouldn’t allow him to shoot until mid-July. Per Begley, “I wasn’t allowed to go near the court,” Anthony said. “They had a ‘no Melo on the court’ kind of sign on the door.”

The forced layoff seems to have done him a lot of good. All eyes will be on Carmelo Anthony this season. This is what he signed up for. He’s just getting warmed up.

Next: Time to be Over-optimistic About Kristaps Porzingis!

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