LeBron James was in town. James had just scored a triple-double. The Knicks had just lost for the 44th time in 74 games.
So the question went to Carmelo Anthony.
Would you be willing to waive the no-trade clause if it meant playing with LeBron in Cleveland?
“I don’t want to talk about that man, I’d rather not talk about a no-trade clause after losing,” said Anthony, after the Knicks were throttled, 107-93, at the Garden by the East’s No. 1 team. “I don’t want to talk about that no more this season to be honest with you.”
Langston Galloway doesn’t know where, doesn’t know when it was that the curse of every athlete arrived. But at some point in the Knicks’ recent past, inconsistency settled into his game.
“Yeah, I’ve been a little bit up and down lately,” Galloway said before the game. “The main thing is just trying to be as consistent as possible.”
Interim coach Kurt Rambis said Galloway, who came out of the D-League last season, just doesn’t look comfortable and relaxed.
“His minutes have been disrupted,” Rambis said. “So he’s probably not comfortable on the floor with where he gets in a ball game.But this year compared to last, we have more guards, more access to people. Some of it is his time is getting limited. “And he doesn’t seem to be relaxed to me and a shooter has to be relaxed, has to be confident. Sometimes, it looks like he’s very tight out there and he’s got to be free. We’re encouraging him to do that.”
It’s sort of a vicious circle. Minutes go down. A player presses. He’s not relaxed. His numbers suffer. Galloway, who played a lot at the point, has settled in more at two guard. And don’t forget there was a coaching change. So there has been adjusting. In his previous 16 games, before going 2-of-5 in 19 minutes against Cleveland, Galloway shot 34-of-106 (32.1 percent), his season mark dropping from 42.3 to 40.2. Galloway never sensed a trigger moment.
“Maybe just over time things have adjusted and changed a little bit,” Galloway said.
“We have a lot of confidence in him and we believe in him and he’s got to go out there and play with a certain sort of freedom,” Rambis said.
Once an Irish, always an Irish.
Jerian Grant, one year removed from Notre Dame, has a lot on his pro plate with the Knicks but he wants to watch Sunday’s Notre Dame-North Carolina showdown for a berth in the Final Four.
“Those are my guys. I’m one year removed from being on the team. I talk to a few of those guys on the team,” Grant said. “I’m pretty sure [I’ll watch]. We don’t have a game so I’m pretty sure I’ll be watching.
“They have a chance. The last time they played Carolina it wasn’t pretty. We beat them once already this year. We definitely have a great chance,” Grant said.
LeBron James said he has not yet made a decision about playing for the Olympic team this summer, though pal Carmelo Anthony recently indicated the two could pair up in the offseason.
“I have not [decided]. We will make our decision, I will make my decision what benefits me and my body and the way I feel. But we haven’t really talked about it as a collective group,” James said, indicating he and Anthony “talk about everything and this summer has been brought up a little bit, but as far as a decision, that really hasn’t been talked about.”
— Additional reporting by Joseph Staszewski