T H U R S D AY , J A N U A R Y 1 9 , 2 0 1 7
Anthony trying to keep Knicks focused
Star remains stoic
after unlikely win
STEVE POPPER USA TODAY NETWORK
BOSTON - As usual, with chaos roil-
ing around the Knicks, when the cam-
eras turned on it was Carmelo Anthony
that was left to explain it away, trying to
infuse a sense of stability into a fran-
chise far more comfortable imploding.
So Anthony had to voice his dedica-
tion to the team in the morning and then
when the Knicks took the court against
the Celtics Wednesday night he found
himself surrounded by a starting lineup
that seemed plucked from the summer
league. But with everything around him
falling apart, Anthony insisted he was
just pulling his teammates together. The
result, for one night anyway, was an un-
likely 117-106 win.
This is life for Anthony in New York,
the place where he forced his way to and
where he finds himself having to renew
his vows with. But Anthony, after the lat-
est self-inflicted controversy for the
Knicks, didn’t want to go into the details,
but clearly sounded as if he was tiring of
the other actors in the drama. For the
second time in a just over a month Antho-
ny listened to Jackson, the Knicks’ presi-
dent, in a brief meeting Tuesday before
flying to Boston, and is growing more
weary of the constant pokes and digs di-
rected his way.
“The conversation wasn’t that long,”
Anthony said. “We didn’t break bread.
We didn’t have an hour conversation. It
was a short conversation.
“I’m done asking why. I’m done ask-
ing why. My focus is playing ball at this
point,” adding when asked if he was dis-
appointed, “It is what it is. My focus is
these guys. That’s all I care at this point
and making sure these guys are staying
strong, staying positive and keeping
their head on right and not letting every-
thing else be a distraction to them.”
NBA
AP
New York Knicks guard Derrick Rose (25)
drives to the basket against the Boston
Celtics Wednesday. Rose scored 30 as the
Knicks defeated the Celtics 117-106.
Rose powers
slumping Knicks
past Celtics
KEN POWTAK ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON - Derrick Rose matched
his season high with 30 points, and the
slumping New York Knicks beat the
Boston Celtics 117-106 on Wednesday
night.
New York played without injured
starters Kristaps Porzingis and Joakim
Noah, but Mindaugas Kuzminskas and
Willy Hernangomez each scored 17
points to help make up for their ab-
sence. It was just the third win in 14
games for the Knicks.
Isaiah Thomas led Boston with 39
points, his 13th time this season with 30
or more points. Jae Crowder added 21
for the Celtics, who lost for only the
fourth time in 17 games.
Al Horford, Boston’s big free-agent
acquisition during the summer, had
five points on 2-of-14 shooting. He was 1
for 8 on 3-point attempts.
Boston closed to 97-96 on Jaylen
Brown’s two free throws with just un-
der eight minutes to play, but Justin
Holiday and Courtney Lee nailed 3-
pointers 29 seconds apart, pushing
New York’s lead back to seven. Rose
then capped an 8-0 spree by putting in
his own miss after Thomas missed a
jumper — his seventh straight shot that
was off.
Up next: Knicks: Host Washington
on Thursday night for their third game
in four days. The Wizards won the only
other matchup — 119-112 on Nov. 17.
Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony met with team president Phil Jackson on Tuesday regarding
Anthony’s future in New York.
Anthony always is the face of the
franchise and it was no different at the
morning shootaround. He was left to ad-
dress the latest round of the strange rela-
tionship between the Knicks star and the
man who signed him to the contract that
was supposed to secure his future with
the franchise, Jackson.
Asked if he and Jackson where on the
same page now, Anthony said, “We con-
verse when we converse. We talk when
we talk. Leave it at that.”
What you didn’t hear Wednesday
morning is Anthony mouthing the “I be-
lieve in Phil” talk that he spoke when he
signed on for five more years just
months after Jackson took over as team
president. Anthony put his faith in him-
self and in the players on the court with
him.
“I’m committed. I don’t have to prove
that to anybody,” Anthony said. “I don’t
think I have to prove that to anybody. I
don’t think I have to keep saying that. I
NHL
Islanders’ interim coach Weight
aims to right ship at mid-season
VIN A. CHERWOO ASSOCIATED PRESS
EAST MEADOW - Doug Weight
knows it won’t be easy for the New York
Islanders to get back in the playoff
race, but the interim coach is preach-
ing a simple approach in taking it one
game at a time with half the season re-
maining.
Coming off their second straight
100-point season and the franchise’s
first playoff series win in 23 years, the
Islanders stumbled from the start of
this season. Despite some brief stretch-
es of good play, they sit last in the East-
ern Conference at 17-17-8 and the incon-
sistency cost coach Jack Capuano his
job on Tuesday.
“We have 40 games left,” Weight
said Wednesday after the Islanders’
first practice since the coaching
change. “We believe in what we can do
on the ice. It’s not like there’s just 20
games left and we have to win 19 of
them.”
The Islanders are just eight points
out of the second wild-card spot in the
East, and they have played fewer
games than almost every team ahead of
them.
Captain John Tavares said the
team’s focus remains on “trying to get
better each and every day.”
“Certainly any time a coaching
AUTO RACING
IndyCar drivers eager to keep momentum
MICHAEL MAROT ASSOCIATED PRESS
INDIANAPOLIS - Last fall, James
Hinchcliffe kept dance fans on their
toes.
Now he’s hoping those memorable
moves help the IndyCar Series take an
even bigger step — expanding its audi-
ence.
Less than two months after surpris-
ingly toe-tapping his way to a runner-up
finish on the hit show “Dancing With
The Stars,” the popular Canadian driv-
er returned to Indianapolis to explain
how his performances could drive rat-
ings.
“That was not something I was aspir-
ing to do,” Hinchcliffe said Wednesday
at the series’ annual media day. “For
me, it’s about trying to get fans to tune
into races. A lot of times, people don’t
tune in until they meet someone and
then they turn it on to watch that person
and then maybe they can become a
fan.”
AP FILE PHOTO
don’t think I have to keep talking about
that. I know for a fact that people see
that.
“Right now my focus is on playing
basketball and staying with these guys
because a lot of these guys never dealt
with all of this stuff before. Especially
being in a market like New York, dealing
with articles. Everybody has a different
opinion on different situations. A lot of
these guys have never dealt with that. So
for me it’s all about being there more so
than ever right now during this time
right now.”
The article that spurred this latest
trouble was one penned by Jackson’s
long-time friend and former assistant
coach, Charley Rosen. Rosen has chron-
icled Jackson’s first two full seasons in
New York online, meeting regularly with
Jackson and then regurgitating his
thoughts after the season is over. In the
latest story, he didn’t quote Jackson, but
ripped Anthony, claiming that he had
AP
Doug Weight knows it won't be easy for New
York Islanders to get back in the playoff race,
but the interim coach is preaching a simple
approach in taking it one game at a time with
half the season remaining.
change is made, that sends a pretty
strong message of how we haven’t
played up to our standard,” he said. “We
just got to find some more consistency
and build on some of the things Dougie is
preaching and go from there. Just one
game at a time, and try to get better.”
Weight spent the last three seasons of
AP
IndyCar veteran Ryan Hunter-Reay listens to a
question during IndyCar Series annual media
day Wednesday, Jan. 18, in Indianapolis.
Hinchcliffe has already detected dif-
ferences.
At airports, the top driver for Schmidt
Peterson Motorsports said he’s being
stopped more frequently to talk about
dancing instead of his pole-winning run
PRESS & SUN-BULLETIN • 7C
outlived his usefulness in New York,
while praising Jackson’s work. Left out
where any of the stumbles and miscues
that Jackson has taken.
While Anthony has steadfastly held to
his intention to stay in New York, Jack-
son has sniped - little different than he
did in his stops collecting 11 champion-
ship rings as a coach - at Anthony with
pokes and prods through the media. It
seemed to culminate earlier this season
when Jackson, who rarely speaks public-
ly at all anymore, went on CBS Sports
and called Anthony a ball stopper, fault-
ing him for some of the failures of the
team’s offense.
Jackson, who has only traveled to Los
Angeles, where he maintains a home,
spoke to Anthony for a moment at prac-
tice there and Anthony’s only takeaway
was to ask Jackson why does his name al-
ways have to come up?
This time Anthony was asked if he
still placed his faith in Jackson and if he
had his say in the talks.
“I don’t think that’s where any of this
is at at this point,” he said. “My say is
what I can do, what I want to do, dealing
with the guys on my team. That’s com-
pletely what I care about at this partic-
ular time. Everything is irrelevant to me.
“I’m numb. It’s water off my back at
this point.”
Anthony may be numb to the constant
trouble that swirls around Madison
Square Garden. But he also is a business-
man as much as he is a basketball player.
When he got the deal from Jackson, se-
curing the no-trade clause, it was like a
young couple in love still signing the pre-
nuptial agreement.
“I think as players you always want to
protect yourself,” Anthony said. “I didn’t
think it would get to this point. I think as a
player if you can get that you have a right
to protect yourself and take care of your-
self when it comes to that. It’s very hard
to get, very difficult to get. I have it and
that’s that.”
Email: popper@northjersey.com
his playing career with the Islanders be-
fore retiring in 2011 and joining the team
as an executive and coach. While he ex-
pects there will be some changes to the
Islanders’ system, he doesn’t think they
will be major.
“I’m certainly not going to reinvent
the wheel,” Weight said. “We’re going to
tweak some things in certain systems. …
We’re going to play the right way, we’re
going to win games … We’re going to
have a little more discipline in managing
the puck in certain areas, making some
decisions.”
The 45-year-old Weight said he isn’t
concerned about having the “interim”
tag, choosing to simply focus on the task
at hand.
“I’m going to give everything I have,
whether it’s five games or 40 games or if
it turns into 10 years,” he said.
Part of Weight’s task will be trying to
get more from players such as newcom-
er Andrew Ladd, who has just eight goals
and four assists in 41 games after signing
a seven-year, $38.5 million deal last July.
Ladd and fellow free-agent signee Jason
Chimera were part of the offseason ros-
ter overhaul that saw longtime stars
Kyle Okposo, Frans Nielsen and Matt
Martin sign elsewhere. The departed
trio combined for 52 goals and 83 assists
last season, while the two newcomers
have totaled 16 goals and 12 assists so far.
at the 100th Indianapolis 500 or being the
self-proclaimed Mayor of Hinchtown.
The extra publicity comes as IndyCar
appears to be making progress in gener-
ating a larger fan base.
According to Nielsen Media Re-
search, the series averaged 1.28 million
viewers for the 16 races in 2016. That’s a
12 percent increase over 2015 and its
highest average since 2011.
The same research also showed the 11
races televised on NBC Sports Network
and CNBC decreased by almost 30,000
people per race. And after selling out the
series’ biggest event, the 500, few expect
that to happen again in 2017 for the 101st
running of the iconic race.
So after a crucial season, many are
hoping Hinchcliffe’s appearance will
keep fans revved up.
“The good thing about last year is I do
feel we got new, young people watching
the Indy 500,” three-time 500 winner and
former DWTS champion Helio Castro-
neves said.