Carmelo Anthony, the New York Knicks top scorer and rebounder, will not play again this season as he is due to undergo left knee surgery after suffering in pain for months, the NBA club announced Wednesday.
Anthony ended his campaign only three days after scoring 14 points on 6-of-20 shooting over 30 minutes in Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game, played on the Knicks’ Madison Square Garden homecourt.
The Knicks have the worst record in the NBA at 10-43 at the All-Star Game break, already ensured of a losing season, and Anthony elected to have the operation so that he would be certain of being healed in time for the start of training camp for the 2015-16 campaign.
“What we’re finding out from medical, on-court, it could be 4-6 months,” Knicks president Phil Jackson said regarding Anthony’s potential recovery time.
The Knicks, who are 0-13 this season when Anthony does not play, released Amare Stoudemire earlier this week, helping boost their potential to sign future free agents under NBA salary cap limits.
Anthony, a 12-year NBA veteran and eight-time NBA All-Star who helped the US Olympic squad win gold in 2008 at Beijing and 2012 in London, will have a patella tendon debridement and repair performed by team orthopedist Answorth Allen.
The injury was more of a long-term wear issue than something that came from off-season work, Anthony said.
“It wasn’t something that was sudden from summer activity,” he said.
Anthony, 30, has averaged 24.2 points and 6.6 rebounds a game for the Knicks, whose collapse has been a major disappointment, especially in the wake of Jackson taking charge behind the scenes and trying to guide a revival.
Anthony was the NBA scoring champion two seasons ago, when the Knicks won their first playoff series since 2000 but were beaten by Indiana in the second round of the NBA playoffs.
