Knicks star, Carmelo Anthony practically lives for big moments the world of NBA has on offer. However, the Knicks’ forward admits that there is one type of pressure situation that would be too much for him to take.
Cavaliers guard, Iman Shumpert helped deliver his first child at home last week and Anthony seems to be overawed by his teammate’s mental strength to be so strong under such a pressure situation. While speaking to reporters, Anthony spoke about his former teammate ahead of the team’s game in Cleveland.
“That’s my hero,” Melo said of Shumpert. “I take my hat off to him for that. That’s my hero, man. I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I don’t know how he did it, you know, he had the baby, he had the phone, it was on speaker, it was — I don’t know. I probably would have panicked. So it takes a strong man to deliver something like that.”
Joking around with the reporters, Melo stated that his former teammate’s quick reflexes have definitely helped him grab an assist of a lifetime.
“He’s a good defender, too,” Anthony said. “Of course he’s got some good hands. So they came in handy that night.”
Anthony and Shumpert spent four glorious years together in New York and could bump into one another on Wednesday night. However, chances could be slim for Anthony who is still nursing a sprained ankle which he suffered during Monday’s loss to the Magic.
However, the forward participated in the shootaround on Wednesday as the team got ready to take on LeBron James and co. And while Anthony’s participation is not a certainty at the moment, Derek Fisher remains optimistic about the chances of his star player featuring in the crunch encounter.
“Seems like he’s relatively okay,” Fisher said of Melo. “But we won’t know for sure, I guess, until tonight.”
And although the star forward moved a bit during the morning session, he is still not able to run as freely as he would like.
“The running was good. Most of the stuff was good that I did,” Anthony said. “It was just more of the cutting and making moves and making certain moves.”
“If I can go tonight, I can go. If I can’t, I can’t. As of right now, I’ll just see later on.”
Kyle O’Quinn is also dealing with a sprained ankle and just like his teammate, went through everything at the shootaround but a decision on his role against the Cavaliers will be decided before the two teams take the court.
“I’m sure guys will be getting treatment around the clock throughout the afternoon,” Fisher said. “And then hopefully the adrenaline and the opportunity to play against a good team tonight will be able to get some guys over the hump.”
However, Fisher is not looking to take any risks and says that he will not let what happened last year, happen to his team again.
“For all of our guys, we have the same thoughts in terms of injuries and managing the season and how much is too much in terms of practice, games, everything,” Fisher said. “Last year was disastrous for us in terms of injuries and the number of bodies we had out. We didn’t have a chance a lot of nights just because we didn’t have enough guys.
“So far this year, we’ve been in a good spot to have all of our guys available, and we feel like that’s helped us. So if tonight’s not the night for either Melo or Kyle or anybody, we have to consider that in terms of the fact that we have a long season ahead of us.”
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