Newest Knick Anthony: "New York basketball is back" (Feature)

By Paul Levine Feb 24, 2011, 2:52 GMT

Los Angeles - Newest New York Knick Carmelo Anthony is ready to make the Big Apple shine again.

'New York basketball is back,' Anthony said to a full house of media at press conference on Wednesday at Madison Square Garden.

'Will we win a championship this year? Who knows? That takes time. But at the end of the day, we're taking steps in the right direction.'

Anthony created a major buzz in the city late Monday night, agreeing to be dealt from the Denver Nuggets to the Knicks as the central piece of a blockbuster, multi-player, three-team trade, ahead of the February 24 trading deadline.

'I feel like I'm still dreaming right now,' said Anthony, wearing a blue and orange Knicks warm-up suit with New York emblazoned across it along with a matching orange headband. 'It's a dream come true for me and I'm ready to get down to business.'

Anthony was joined on the dais by five-time All-Star point guard Chauncey Billups, also acquired from the Nuggets along with backups Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter and Renaldo Balkman.

In exchange, Denver received starters Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Russian rookie centre Timofey Mozgov, the Knicks' 2014 first-round draft pick, the Golden State Warriors' 2012 second-round pick along with their 2013 second-round pick and three-million dollars.

Anthony is pumped up to be playing alongside close friend and fellow All Star Amar'e Stoudemire to make his hometown club a championship contender again since falling on more than a decade of tough times.

'I know I can score 25-30 points a night, but that's not my goal, that's not my mentality,' said Anthony who owns a 24.5 career scoring average. 'Now I know I have someone else who can score 25-30 points a night and we can go out there and lock it down.'

Anthony is aware time may be against him and the success of the Knicks.

'I know there are 26-27 (28) games left so we have to jell and get our chemistry down, but at the same time we got to roll. We've got things we got to go out and get accomplished; we have goals to reach.

'We're going to lose some games because of the lack of chemistry, but at the end of the day our main goal is to get to the playoffs. Once you get to the playoffs like everyone knows anything can happen. It starts now.'

Brooklyn-born Anthony was asked why New York was his preferred destination.

'At the end of the day, I think New York needed something like this,' he said. 'When they acquired Amar'e it brought some excitement back to the city, I felt like I wanted to be part of the organization, part of a team that has some upside and knew what the future was holding.'

That wasn't the case with the Nuggets, which is why the 26-year-old Anthony refused to sign a three-year, 65-million dollar extension that had been sitting on the table since last summer.

'I didn't sour on Denver, but I just didn't know the future of the organization and where they wanted to go,' he explained.

'There's word they been trying to go young and there's a lot of other things such as player contracts; who was going to be there and you have to make a decision with that.'

Knicks owner James Dolan came away impressed with Anthony following their meeting during the recent NBA All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles.

'It was clear he wanted to come to our city and play for our franchise,' he said.

Billups had mixed emotions over leaving his hometown of Denver, but the 35-year-old point guard is excited Anthony got his wish.

'The whole thing is I know this is a huge day from 'Melo and how bad he wanted this to happen,' he said.

'Initially, I know I probably wasn't in the plans but everybody sees the mentality we play with together and the cohesive we have on the court. Why would you want to break that up?

Anthony was proud and tickled to be making his Knicks debut in a few hours as New York hosted the Milwaukee Bucks at a sold-out Madison Square Garden.

'I'm going upstairs to play in my first basketball as a New York Knick in one of the best arenas in the world,' he said. I'm excited about that.'

Read more about Basketball NBA