BAYAMÓN, P.R. — Tom Payne, the president of Puerto Rico F.C., is too anxious to sit during his team’s soccer matches. So he paces the concourse here at Estadio Juan Ramón Loubriel, a converted baseball stadium in a commercial neighborhood about 10 miles from San Juan, and fields text messages from his boss.

“Why aren’t they tackling more?” the boss wants to know. “We need to get tougher!”

The boss is Carmelo Anthony, whose role as owner of Puerto Rico F.C., a second-year club in the North American Soccer League, serves multiple purposes. It is a form of community outreach, a pull he felt as a result of his Puerto Rican heritage. It is an investment opportunity. And it is a welcome diversion from his day job as a starting forward for the Knicks.

“I try to watch every game,” Anthony said.

As the Knicks lurch toward the end of another disastrous season, Anthony’s future with the organization seems tenuous at best. Phil Jackson, the team president, wants to ship him elsewhere, which would require Anthony to waive his no-trade clause. Anthony has warned of reading “the writing on the wall.” Amid so much dysfunction, at least he has his other team — the one he gets to run.