Melo struggling with knee again this week, likely to only play a few minutes…
New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony insists suggestions that he missed games this season to remain healthy enough for the All-Star Game are “absurd”.
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Anthony has sat out 11 games so far this season with a sore knee that will likely require surgery, but he has been accused of putting his personal interests ahead of the team this year.
Not only did the 30-year-old make the trip to London last month for the Knicks’ game against the Milwaukee Bucks at the O2 Arena when he had struggled with his knee the previous week, but he is expected to play on Sunday night despite suffering a setback earlier this week.
However, he shot down claims that he was focusing on the All-Star Game rather than his team particularly given that it will be played at Madison Square Garden.
“I’ve played when I wasn’t supposed to play, so for people to say that is, that’s absurd,” Anthony told reporters, as reported by ESPN.
“I’ve played through this [injury] since the second game of the season, since the first game of the season. So for somebody to say I was waiting for this moment — yeah, I was waiting for the moment. All-Star weekend was here in New York so of course, I was waiting for this moment.
“(But) I played when I wasn’t supposed to play. When people were telling me to sit out, I was fighting against them and still going out there and playing. It was almost a point in the last couple of days where I wasn’t going to participate in All-Star weekend.”
Anthony reiterated that he will play as much as he can on Sunday in order to acknowledge the fans who voted him in as a starter for the East, but he isn’t expected to last long which suggests that the injury has certainly worsened.
He also conceded that he will likely have to undergo surgery on the problem and he will want to make that decision sooner rather than later in order to give him enough time to recover over the summer and return in time for training camp later in the year.
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