Knicks brass wants the team’s players doing some form of social work revolving around the “Black Lives Matter” campaign that would go beyond just kneeling for the national anthem.
Knicks president Phil Jackson said he discussed the situation Friday with Carmelo Anthony, who just returned from Poland. Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek and general manager Steve Mills said coming up with ideas that will help things and not just creating controversy is the goal. Anthony became the NBA’s foremost social activist this offseason regarding the police shootings that have set off racial strife.
“I’ve talked to some of players — the awareness is out there,” Hornacek said at Friday’s press conference in advance of training camp, which opens Monday. “What can we do to further it and do something about it and make it better. They seem past the stage of making a stance.”
Jackson said if the players wanted to kneel during the national anthem, he wouldn’t forbid it.
“We’re trying to measure what our players want to do,” Jackson said. “We want them to do something they all feel genuine about. I asked for a consultation and to talk about it. We want to do something unified and representative of who we are and want to be respectful to our fan group.”
Mills, who is black, has had several talks with Anthony on the subject. Mills pulled the Knicks out of their Charleston training camp one year because of the Confederate flag hanging prominently on the South Carolina statehouse in Columbia.
“He’s an example of a guy who’s been outspoken about issues and try to help a community come together rather than symbolic gestures and having dialogue to make things happen,” said Mills, referring to Anthony’s town hall meeting in Los Angeles during the Olympic training camp.