Carmelo Anthony denies he wants to be traded

GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Carmelo Anthony spent part of the morning refuting a report that he wanted to be traded and saying he supports Mike D'Antoni. Anthony will spend much longer trying to convince everyone he didn't have a hand in D'Antoni's resignation Wednesday.

Anthony didn't help his case after the Knicks enjoyed a laugher, beating the Trail Blazers, 121-79, in interim coach Mike Woodson's debut.

"I had to sacrifice for the system, for Mike D'Antoni's system," Anthony said. "I had no problem with that. Tonight was a different system. Everybody felt comfortable tonight. You all saw it out there. Everybody was smiling and having fun."

Amar'e Stoudemire didn't help Anthony's case, either.

Stoudemire revealed a big reason D'Antoni stepped down was "everyone wasn't buying into his system." Anthony, who is used to playing one-on-one, never seemed to fit in D'Antoni's pick-and-roll offense.

Anthony has been at the center of the Knicks' storm lately. There have been numerous reports about Anthony's relationship souring with his teammates and D'Antoni.

One story claimed Anthony would seek a trade if D'Antoni returned next season. But Anthony tried to put an end to that, saying he doesn't want to leave the Knicks, hours before D'Antoni left the Knicks.

"I don't know where that came from," Anthony said. "I'm tired of hearing it. It came out from an anonymous source. I'm tired of anonymous sources. I don't want to be traded."

The NBA trade deadline is Thursday, and it's doubtful Anthony would have gone anywhere even had D'Antoni stayed.

Anthony had never spoken up so strongly for D'Antoni as he did Wednesday morning when he said he supports him "100 percent." He also admitted that being blamed for the Knicks' recent struggles affected him, and he needs to improve his in-game body language.

It was as if Anthony had a weight lifted off his shoulders Wednesday night. He seemed to be having the most fun of any Knick, waving towels on the bench, chest- and hip-bumping teammates.

"I felt something coming into tonight's game as far as how my body feels, my mind, I felt clear in my mind," Anthony said. "I just wanted to win this game so bad. It was a big win and a big game for me."

The Knicks snapped a six-game losing streak, and Anthony tried to absolve of himself of any involvement in D'Antoni walking away.

"I didn't have anything to do with that," Anthony said. "That was coach's decision.

"There's no bad blood between myself, Mike D'Antoni, the guys on the team or anything like that. We respect his decision. He said he did what was best for the team at this point in time right now. We have no choice but to support him."

But Anthony made it sound as if he supports Woodson much more and seemed to be taking a shot at D'Antoni for not being hard enough on players.

"We all know as players what type of coach Coach Woodson is," Anthony said. "He's a hard-nosed coach. All he wants us to do is play hard. I told him in the meeting today, me being one of the leaders of the team, if anything is going wrong or he's seeing things I'm not doing to hold me accountable."