GREENBURGH, N.Y. _ Carmelo Anthony felt it was "disrespectful" that Slam Magazine ranked him the 15th-best player in the NBA, and he let it be known.
On his Instagram page, Anthony responded to it by saying "don't play yaself" and "all credibility lost."
Anthony said someone "like a family member" sent him the ranking to motivate him. He said he wasn't motivated by it, though.
"I wasn't actually upset," Anthony said. "I just looked at it and it was disrespectful.
"I'm self motivated. I don't really need something like that to motivate me. Probably somebody sitting at a desk over at Slam coming up and doing their job."
When Anthony was asked if he's canceling his subscription, he joked, "Yeah, for sure."
Sports Illustrated ranked Anthony 24th.
"I know," Anthony said. "I remember that."
When asked where he would rank himself, Anthony said, "just not 15."
Anthony's stats have gone down the last couple of seasons, and the Knicks have failed to make the playoffs the last three years. That surely affects his ranking.
But Anthony said he doesn't believe he has something to prove because of how the media ranks him each year.
"Every year, though, I feel like I have something to prove regardless of what's going on," Anthony said. "I've always felt like that. High school. College. NBA. I've always felt like I had to work extremely hard to get the respect I deserve. It is what it is. I take it with a grain of salt. I laugh at it.
"I definitely wasn't upset about it yesterday. It was just kind of surprising that first somebody sent me that and the second I look on there that's what I see. So it's just more of kind of letting them know you lost some credibility with me."
