Carmelo Anthony returned to Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers and with visions of his jersey hanging from the rafters.
Anthony, who played about seven seasons with the New York Knicks from 2010 to 2017, said in a recent interview with the New York Daily News that he hopes to see his No. 7 hanging at Madison Square Garden someday.
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“Do I think about it? Anybody would want to get that opportunity if it’s there,” Anthony said. “We’ll see when that time comes. Hopefully, they’ll hang ‘7’ somewhere up there.”
Anthony played 412 games for the Knicks during his stint there. He averaged 24.7 points and 7 rebounds per game during that time. He brought New York some of their most winningest seasons since the days Patrick Ewing and John Starks were running the offense.
Anthony was on the team when the Knicks made the playoffs last — the 2012-13 season. However, New York never made it further than the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
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He was traded from New York in September 2017 to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott and a draft pick that turned into Mitchell Robinson.
However, Knicks fans showed Wednesday that they still have love in reserve for him.
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“Overall, the experience and just being back today I think is the most important thing,” Anthony said after the 117-93 loss to the Knicks. “The loss is something that we’ll get to the bottom of. We’ll figure it out. It happens. You have to take your hat off to those guys, they played extremely well tonight. The way that they shot the ball, the way that they were locked in, they deserved to win tonight.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.