Carmelo Anthony satisfied after ‘good conversation’ with Phil Jackson

SAN FRANCISCO — Phil Jackson sought out Carmelo Anthony for their recent sit-down and the Knicks’ All-Star came ready with questions for the team president.

Anthony called it a “good conversation,” but if he has additional questions, he can always consult his close friend Kobe Bryant.

Jackson’s former player said everyone in New York should leave the Knicks’ president alone and let him do his job.

“People in New York just need to trust the fact that he knows more about basketball than any of them put together,” Bryant said Sunday night after the Knicks beat the Lakers, 90-87, on Jose Calderon’s three-pointer with two-tenths of a second left.

Bryant went on to call Jackson “the greatest coach in any profession — ever,” which might be the case. But Jackson isn’t in the locker room or on the court coaching the Knicks. He’s in his office, trying to find the players and pieces who will make his vision work, and thus far the results haven’t been good.

The Knicks, who will continue a six-game trip tomorrow night against the defending NBA champion Warriors, are 45-105 under Jackson and are on their second coach.

Kristaps Porzingis is a major building block and Robin Lopez has been effective and productive. But the Knicks need to address the backcourt and wing positions as well as the bench.

Anthony said it’s up to management to make the moves this summer that ensure that the Knicks don’t have another season that falls short of the playoffs. The Knicks don’t have a draft pick, so Jackson’s work must be done through trades and free agency, where they could have about $18 million to spend.

“It’s in their court,” Anthony said. “The ball is in their court. They have an opportunity, or we have an opportunity, to do something this offseason. We got to do something. It’s there. Everybody has money this summer, so it’s kind of an even playing field. You just got to hit the ground running.”

Anthony has expressed his displeasure in various ways since the Knicks began their skid from 22-22 to their current mark of 28-40. As a result, the conversation between Jackson and Anthony had been a long time coming, and it took place at the start of the trip in Denver.

Anthony said the conversation wasn’t “one-sided.”

“I thought it was a good conversation,” he said. “I thought it was good timing for us to sit down and talk. It was more of just an open dialogue, just questions that I had. I won’t go into the details of those questions. But it was good for me to get it out there, talk about it, get his response, get his feedback, and that was that.

“I thought the questions that were asked were pretty standard questions. There wasn’t no hard questions. It was questions you could answer easily. I got some answers that I was looking for. I’ll leave it at that.”

One of the things Jackson told reporters during his 30-minute state of the Knicks address Friday in Los Angeles was that he still views Anthony as a cornerstone player for the Knicks.

“I think that was more coming from his side and expressing that,” Anthony said. “It felt good to hear that. I don’t know what else to say about that.”

Jackson likes the way Anthony has played this season. But when asked if he is untouchable in trade conversations, Jackson said it’s Anthony’s call, given that he has a no-trade clause.

“That’s entirely up to Carmelo,” Jackson said. “He has it in his contract. So it’s in his lap. But we like a lot of what he played at this year.

“I think he got disappointed at some point and things happened. I’m seeing the ball move better a lot of times, not as long a hold time. I think it depends a lot about the degree of where the game’s at and sometimes he feels ‘I have to take this game over.’ So I’m trying to say keep with the program. We can come back. There’s hope there, and he has to see that.”

By Al Iannazzone

al.iannazzone@newsday.comAl_Iannazzone

Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.