Carmelo Anthony said after his exit meeting with Knicks president Phil Jackson he definitely “wants to stay,’’ that the “grass isn’t always greener on the other side,’’ but competing for a title is still the No. 1 priority in his free-agent decision.

Anthony said he spoke with Jackson for 12 minutes and came away extremely impressed with his communication skills, though he admitted Jackson didn’t map out the plan for the franchise yet.

“I want to come back,” Anthony said Thursday at the Tarrytown practice facility. “I want to come back. If me wanting to be here, if we can put ourselves in a position to compete at a high level over the course of five years, whatever that contract will be, I’m willing to stay here. I never once said I wanted to leave. I always said I want to explore options and see what’s out there.”

In a surprising development, Anthony also gave his strongest endorsement this season of lame-duck coach Mike Woodson, saying he’d give him “a recommendation’’ if that’s what it would take for Woodson to return next season.

“Mike Woodson has become a guy I can talk to, almost a father figure, a friend, a guy I can bounce stuff off of,” Anthony said. “I’ve been a guy he’s talked to about multiple things. When that time comes, if it’s ready for me to step up and take the next step, [of answering whether] Mike Woodson needs to stay or go, I don’t think it will come down to that, but I would back him. If he needs my recommendation, here or anywhere else, I’d back him. I have nothing bad to say about Mike Woodson. For me as a player, I had some of my best years under Mike Woodson.’’

Anthony said he enjoyed immensely his conversation with Jackson.

“There was some insight,’’ Anthony said. “Phil always comes with some kind of knowledge. Which is always good. We didn’t get into detail any specifics about anything. We went on a recap of the season. We didn’t get into details about anything specific. His knowledge and wisdom is something I can sit down and listen to all day long. He’s very philosophical. He has a scenario. He has an answer for every scenario. He makes everything clear. Just the way he talks and his delivery and message for me something I can listen to all day.”

Still, Anthony said winning is the only thing.

“At this point of my career, it’s about winning — nothing else really matters,” he said. “That’s not going to change. That’s still going to be my mindset. It is my mindset. That’s going to be my No. 1 thing.’’

Anthony is hoping Jackson’s plan is not to tank next season in preparation for 2015.

“I’m not at a point where I want to rebuild,’’ Anthony said. “If we can work with the pieces we have and Phil brings his knowledge of running a basketball program to this, we can have a lot of talk.’’

Asked about teams that could be closer to a title such as Chicago and Houston, Melo said, “Other teams that’s out there, the best situation, you never know. Sometimes the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.”

Anthony said of missing the playoffs: “It’s embarrassing. For me. I can’t even put that into words. I can’t describe the feeling.’’

He also said he began rehab for his right shoulder labrum tear on Wednesday.

fishmike wrote:

yellowboy90 wrote:To me it seems, Woodson is the good guy coach every player likes personally but dislike his actual coaching ability.

agree 100%. Kinda same w/ MDA. Good guy, funny to listen too, not a good coach.

Vmart wrote:This is the second player to say I don't want to rebuild. If these players did the job right there would be no f'ing mention of rebuild. Anyways this leads me to think Phil might be considering a rebuild.

+1

Tyson said he doesn't want a part of a rebuild team, well, sir, we didn't want a C that is a no show at the playoffs and got the flu all the time, go work on some offense.

Melo? not a lot to blame, but not really a leader that demands like Kobe or taking pay cut like Lebron style. Melo is ok with everything, with Woody, with Amare, with Felton, but, doesn't want to rebuild, so take some payoff cut and start willingly to play in a system, move the ball, no excuses(and i hate all the surrounding that he had the last 2 seasons).

if Phil wants to rebuild so be it, but i don't think he will

The Big 3 conspired to all play together and take less money to be able to form a good team around themselves. What did Melo do? He got a longer contract so to he could get a bigger paycheck. His last year in Denver he could have signed with us in the offseason giving his team more assets to surround him with talent. He was so short sighed that all he could think about was getting the biggest paycheck possible while still playing with the Knicks(Endorsement Money). This thought backfired by giving Denver leverage they should have never had. There is a lot more example of this that I have in my head but I don't feel like putting the effort into listing them all. This team does not deserve my full effort with how badly they performed this year.

Melo is now at another fork in the road in his career and his quotes show me that he is ready to take the short sighted approached again. The gist one quote that sticks out the most is that he is not willing to endure a rebuilding season. He could end up going to the Bulls where they will always without a doubt be in the playoffs or he could endure one bad season with the Knicks and recruit Lebron and some others to be apart of something special in New York. Short sighted Melo will probably make 1 of 2 decisions when the time comes. He will either take a Max contract and handicap our team for years or he will leave for a good team that will always make the playoffs but will probably never win a championship. He always says he wants to win and I believe him. The problem with Melo is that he always takes the short sighted approach.

Clean wrote:I have been gone for a while since I knew the Knicks would treat this this season as a macrocosm of their futile attempts at winning actual games. They will come close in the end but ultimately fail, thus breaking their fans heart more. I happened to read some of the quotes melo said while going about my day and decided to say something. Short sighted melo is looking like it is rearing its ugly head again. The one difference between The Heats big 3 and Melo is that they all saw the big picture and Melo was always short sighted.

The Big 3 conspired to all play together and take less money to be able to form a good team around themselves. What did Melo do? He got a longer contract so to he could get a bigger paycheck. His last year in Denver he could have signed with us in the offseason giving his team more assets to surround him with talent. He was so short sighed that all he could think about was getting the biggest paycheck possible while still playing with the Knicks(Endorsement Money). This thought backfired by giving Denver leverage they should have never had. There is a lot more example of this that I have in my head but I don't feel like putting the effort into listing them all. This team does not deserve my full effort with how badly they performed this year.

Melo is now at another fork in the road in his career and his quotes show me that he is ready to take the short sighted approached again. The gist one quote that sticks out the most is that he is not willing to endure a rebuilding season. He could end up going to the Bulls where they will always without a doubt be in the playoffs or he could endure one bad season with the Knicks and recruit Lebron and some others to be apart of something special in New York. Short sighted Melo will probably make 1 of 2 decisions when the time comes. He will either take a Max contract and handicap our team for years or he will leave for a good team that will always make the playoffs but will probably never win a championship. He always says he wants to win and I believe him. The problem with Melo is that he always takes the short sighted approach.

Yup, melo wants to win but doesn't have the patience to win.

Amare says he realizes that Woodson is under fire, but that he's learned more defensively under Woodson than any coach he's had.
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Say whaaaaat?

yellowboy90 wrote:Chris Herring ‏@HerringWSJ 33s

Amare says he realizes that Woodson is under fire, but that he's learned more defensively under Woodson than any coach he's had.
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Say whaaaaat?

Who was his coach for most of his career?