Carmelo Anthony isn't letting Phil Jackson rewrite their Knicks history without a response.
The newly minted Basketball Hall of Famer fired back at his former team president after Jackson made fresh remarks about their rocky relationship in his upcoming book, Masters of the Game.
Jackson, who served as the Knicks' president of basketball operations from 2014 to 2017, revisited his tumultuous time with Anthony, implying that the All-Star forward failed to buy into his system and ultimately held the team back. But on the latest episode of his 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, Anthony made it clear he wasn't having it.
"I'm sick of these folks, man. Phil is bugged out. C'mon bro, what are we doing here?" Anthony said. "As a man, if I was that much of a hindrance to you, why didn't you have a conversation with me when I was there, instead of bringing me in the office, showing me Michael Jordan clips of the triangle [offense], and telling me what not to do in the triangle because he did it wrong? This is shit that he told me. Instead of doing that, let's have a real man conversation."
Anthony criticized Jackson for forcing an outdated "triangle offense" system that didn't fit the modern NBA's pace-and-space style or the roster Jackson himself built. According to Melo, the Knicks had a "poorly structured team" that Jackson was "at the helm of" and the Hall of Fame coach had a vision that wasn't going to work with that era of the NBA.
"At the time, it didn't fit the style of the NBA," said Melo. "We were the laughingstock of the NBA for being in the triangle, and I had to fight that, and I had to take those bullets. Not you, Phil Jackson. While I'm taking those bullets, you are in the stands tweeting, talking about Melo breaking the triangle. This is the shit I had to deal with."
During Jackson's three-year tenure, the Knicks failed to make the playoffs, and his stint is widely remembered for disarray both on the court and behind the scenes. Anthony, meanwhile, carried the brunt of criticism amid the chaos, something he says Jackson never addressed directly.
"I never spoke on him, never spoke about him. I probably had three conversations with the man his whole tenure," Anthony added. "We didn't have a relationship. So if I was that much of a hindrance to you, you should've came to me and said it. Instead of telling me to bare with you, 'rock with me, stay with me, I got you, bare with me we going to fix this.'"
Melo went on to say that not every player is suitable for the triangle offense, using Derrick Rose as an example.
Melo 10-time All-Star added that he tried to work with the system and get his teammates to buy in, but it ultimately didn't work. He went on to say that Jackson should've coached the team on how to run the offense properly.
"Instead of sitting your ass up there in the stands, come down here and coach," concluded Melo. "But you know what, the team wasn't good enough for you to come down from upstairs to come down and coach, 'cause you don't coach bullshit teams."