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Carmelo Anthony’s Rehab Road, Pitch To Free Agents, and Vision For Knicks Future

The blue armbands pulled all the way to the top of his biceps, the trademark matching blue headband positioned perfectly on his head, laced up M11s ready for action, and sporting a clean-crisp white No. 7 Knicks uniform.  He looked prepared for a battle on the hardwood but the rigorous rehab challenge is the immediate future for the Knicks All-Star in the midst of a critical summer for the orange and blue.

Carmelo Anthony sat down for an exclusive conversation with Knicks.com for the first time since undergoing season-ending knee surgery in late February.  Anthony jokes about shaking off the rust in his return to the interview chair as he covers a variety of topics that will certainly pique the interest of Knicks fans.

“It’s been a long process,” Anthony admitted.  “I’ve been in the house, bedridden for about 2-3 weeks.  First time I came out of the house was week four or something like that.  I feel much better now that I’m off the brace; I’m off the crutches.  Now, it’s just a matter of getting back into the flow of things.”

Anthony described a plan that is tiered off into a weekly program leading to a potential on-court return in June.  Prior to the surgery, the prolific scorer was posting 24.2 points per game and 6.6 boards in 35.7 minutes of floor time.  Due to the Knicks record and his inability to play at 100 percent health, Anthony opted for midseason surgery.

“Now, it’s just a mental thing for me, sitting down and watching the games, breaking the games down,” he explained.  “The more time I have off the more time I can spend analyzing – putting myself into different situations out there on the basketball court.  As far as being back, I feel great now.  It’s been maybe four or five weeks now.  I feel great.  I feel like I’m ahead of schedule, I feel like I’m capable of doing things now that most guys or most people in my situation you know would take them 8-10 weeks to get where I’m at right now.  I feel great about my recovery and my return.”

When the discussion shifted from rehab to the rebuilding of the Knicks into a playoff participant, Anthony showed genuine excitement regarding the combination of cap space and a top draft pick.

“The time is now,” Anthony emphatically stated.  “There is no need to hold back, we have to go for it but we also have to be smart about the decisions we make because there are a lot of different ways you can approach this offseason.  There are a lot of different ways you can approach the NBA Draft depending on where you land in the lottery, so there are a lot of different scenarios that can take place depending if you are one, two, three, or four.”

There’s a large group of talented restricted and unrestricted free agents on the 2015 market.  Anthony confessed that his home office looks like a general manager’s office with all the potential targets he could be sharing court time with next season.  The 30-year old said he would in fact jump on the phone or do whatever it takes to sell free agents on the Knicks and living in the media capital of the world.

“The first pitch is: see what we are creating over here,” Anthony said.  “Don’t judge us off of the past season, look into the future, look forward, look ahead because what we are going to create is a winning culture here and I believe in that.  But, you have to want to play in New York, you have to want to believe, you have to want to be part of the process, want to be part of the grit and grind.  And, you have to want to come here and work and win.  If that’s not what you want than I don’t think New York is for you but if that’s what you want then we can definitely sit down and talk.”

With only four players under contract for the 2015-16 season, team president Phil Jackson, general manager Steve Mills, and the Knicks front office will begin the process of constructing a squad that fits their system and desired culture for the next year and beyond.

“I’ve had multiple visions of where we are at right now and where we can go and the possibilities of what we can create and what we are going to create,” Anthony divulged.  “I know there are a lot of things being said about what we are going to do, how we are going to do it, when we are going to do it but everything takes time but our time is right now.  We’ve been put in this situation for a reason this past season, we can’t change that, we can learn from that and get better.”

The 2014-15 season is officially in the rear view mirror and for Anthony and the Knicks; the time is now to build for the future.