WEST POINT, N.Y. — As the New York Knicks were leaving Christl Arena at the U.S. Military Academy on Saturday afternoon, the four-day minicamp concluded, Carmelo Anthony was the last one out of the locker room and he was wearing a black Army baseball cap.
Was this a fashion statement to make a point as the Knicks find themselves in the midst of a controversy pitting the anti-war stance of Joakim Noah against the criticism from the academy? Not quite.
"No, no, no," Anthony said. "I've been wearing this all week. It was free. They gave us gifts. We give them gifts, they give us gifts, we wear them. It started raining so I needed something."
It was a light moment in what had been a tense 24 hours for the team. Noah spoke thoughtfully and eloquently Friday afternoon about his beliefs, a long-held stance against war and violence, explaining why he had skipped a team dinner with the cadets and a speech from a retired colonel.
The Knicks then went into damage-control mode, tweeting out photos later Friday of Noah speaking with cadets, as West Point issued a statement denouncing Noah's choice of a venue for his protest. Noah stood by his beliefs Saturday after the fallout.
"It has nothing to do with the cadets," Noah said. "I have a lot of respect for the troops and the sacrifice that they bring for this country. It's just hard for me to see kids killing kids. It's my views. But it was cool just to be able to spend a little time with them, talk to them and just — they have a huge responsibility — to be able to talk to them about that."
While the Knicks' organization may have cringed at the dispute, having conducted the minicamp here for a third straight season, Noah's teammates defended him for holding to his beliefs. Anthony has found himself in similar debates, having been one of the first athletes to take a public stand against violence among the nation's youth, particularly by and against the police.
"That's him and I respect him for it," Derrick Rose said of Noah, who was his teammate in Chicago the past seven years. "That's the last thing he wants is to make a certain group feel a certain way. But that's who he is. Like his heart, and how careful he is and how thoughtful he is about people.
"I just don't want people to paint an image of him who he's not. He's a caring guy, a loving guy, and the last thing he wants is the attention that's coming to him from everywhere about him about anti. And that's something he's not. But of course people are going to run with it and make their own stories, but the people on this team and everybody on this staff, everybody knows his heart and that's the only thing he cares about."
"We're supposed to play basketball and shut up, or play football and shut up," Anthony said. "That's what we're supposed to do. When you start talking about things that people don't want to talk about or try to hide talking about it, things that make people uncomfortable to talk about and look at and realize, then that's when things go bad for us as athletes. If we're just to sit there and play basketball and keep our mouths shut then we'd be cool. We'll get flak about that too. We're kind of in a lose-lose situation. I'd rather go with our gut and what we really believe in. All athletes are human beings and they have their own beliefs.
"For him to take the stance that he took and really say it publicly and really mean it and really feel, then he'd have to really believe in that. I don't think somebody's just going to say, 'I'm not going to go' just because of this or just because of that without having a feeling or an emotion about it or really living that. That's a big step for him to take. He must really feel the way that he feels and believes the way he believes."
That is the crux of the issue for Noah, that he does believe in this and has nearly his entire life. He calls himself a mutt, holding dual citizenship (United States and France) with family roots not only in those countries, but also in Sweden and Africa. He spent part of his high school years at United Nations International School in Manhattan. He has decried the need for war, choosing to honor people rather than flags.
He said that his origins as a pacifist go back to his childhood.
"I think it was just the way I was raised," Noah said. "I was in the city for 9/11. I've always been against war. It's just who I am.
"I've been feeling this way for a long time. I ended up going to the White House (in 2006 after winning the NCAA tournament) out of respect for my teammates and everybody. But like I said, I really respect this country. I love this country. It's given me an unbelievable opportunity. But I have my views. Not everybody has to agree with them. I respect this is a very sensitive subject. A lot of people have sacrificed for this country, died for this country, so I could understand how some people disagree with the way I feel. But at the end of the day that's what this country is all about."
The Knicks will open the preseason Tuesday in Houston and have been discussing as a team how to handle the national anthem.
"We're all thinking," Noah said. "But it's not about dividing people. It's about uniting people and finding solutions. If you're asking me personally, you know, flags, patriotism and all that, I'm not really into that. I come from a lot of different places. I don't feel like one country is better than another one, or that I'm ready to die for a flag or a country. I'm not like that. I've never really been into, never really understood, patriotism, but at the end of the day, I understand."
Steve Popper writes for the Bergen Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. Email him at popper@northjersey.com
