Steve Popper

Staff Writer, @stevepopper

GREENBURGH, N.Y. - Carmelo Anthony sat back in a chair among the 1999 Knicks who were at the team’s training center as part of a throwback celebration, the old-timers including a pair of players who had been teammates with Anthony earlier in his career.

It seemed to make him a little nostalgic, a fitting emotion since he is likely running down the final games of his Knicks career.

Anthony, who turns 33 in May with two more years remaining on his contract - armed with a no-trade clause and a desire to play another six years in the NBA - was still characteristically vague while providing the strongest hints yet that he is ready to leave New York.

“I see the writing on the wall, the writing... yeah, I see it on the wall,” Anthony said. “You don't know what writing is on the wall, though, but I see what writing is on the wall.”

Asked what the writing was, he smiled and said, “No, of course I’m not going to tell you that.”

Lottery-bound Knicks see lack of effort as fatal flaw

Knicks lose again - and lose Rose for the season

What he would make clear is that he is anxiously awaiting his end-of-season exit interview with Knicks president Phil Jackson. Their relationship began with promise when Jackson handed Anthony a five-year, $124.9 million contract to run concurrent to his own tenure in New York.

But as the repeated rebuilding attempts by Jackson fell apart, Jackson began publicly tweaking Anthony - critiquing him as a ball-stopper in a television interview in December, then tweeting his affirmation of a story critical of Anthony’s ability to become a winning player, wrapped around vaguely-concealed feeding to his former assistant coach who wrote that Anthony had outlived his usefulness in New York.

Jackson shopped Anthony around as the Feb. 22 trade deadline approached, but never came up with a deal that would satisfy the veteran player. But the shopping and the slights added up, and Jackson has spoken openly about his lack of understanding of a role or vision for the team as his tenure has been one awful season after another. Anthony has taken the high road throughout the season, but the exit interview likely will not be so polite.

"Pretty sure the chips will be on the table,” Anthony said. “The chips will be on the table in that meeting. Honestly, I don't know what to expect but I got a good feeling. Yeah, the chips will be on the table.”

Jackson, passing reporters in the hallway after this, declined requests for comment.

One of Jackson’s former players from his championship years in Chicago, Scottie Pippen, appeared on ESPN last week and put the blame on Jackson and praised Anthony for handling the criticism so well, even noting that he believed Jackson should be fired.

“I think in this situation everybody has an opinion,” Anthony said. “I think the fact that, for one, we're here in New York - one of the biggest markets in the world - and we are the talk of that market. Everybody has their opinion. I'm just glad people speaking up, whether it's good or bad, people are speaking up, having their own opinion, rather than me trying to convince or not convince people of the situation or what's going on and I could just play basketball. Everybody else sees what's going on so they're going to have an opinion.”

For now, Anthony has five more games - four at Madison Square Garden - and he said he plans to play after sitting out the previous two games. He has spoken of not knowing what his role is here, and he will try not to change in what could be his final games in New York - a city that he pushed to force a trade to in 2011.

“I haven’t put that in perspective yet,” he said. “Maybe as the last couple of games come down. Maybe it’ll cross my mind, not right now.

“I’m going to play. I’m going to go out there and play. The time that I’m on the court, I’m going to play. I’m going to play basketball. It’s the game that I always played and had fun and enjoyed. Although it hasn’t been as fun as I wanted it to be and trying to find the joy in playing the game again. These last couple of games is something that I’ll go out there and play, when I’m out there I’ll play hard and see what happens and enjoy it again.”

Email: popper@northjersey.com