Carmelo Anthony: 'I love playing with Jeremy Lin'

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Carmelo Anthony has heard the talk that he's selfish and can't play with Jeremy Lin. Both, he said Friday, are not true.

"I love playing with Jeremy Lin," Anthony said at the NBA All-Star Weekend media day. "I love playing with the guys on the team. As far as sharing the spotlight, I've been in this game a long time. I'm not going nowhere. The Knicks are not going anywhere. The spotlight's not going anywhere. If we do what we have to do, everybody will share the spotlight."

Anthony suffered a groin injury six minutes into Lin's first Knicks start Feb. 6 and didn't play again until Feb. 20. In between, Lin became an international sensation, and the question of whether Anthony could coexist with him became front-and-center chatter.

It hasn't died down much. The Knicks are 1-2 since Anthony's return, including Thursday night's 102-88 loss to the Miami Heat in Lin's worst game as a starter.

Lin shot 1-for-11 and had eight points, three assists and eight turnovers. Anthony had 19 points but shot 7-for-20.

For Anthony, the idea that he's selfish doesn't match up with what he was trying to do before Lin's emergence, which was play point forward while hurt for a struggling Knicks squad.

"The only thing that really affected me was the selfish part," Anthony said. "I was really like, 'Where did that come from?' . . . I went out there and tried to play hurt. It didn't work. I should have sat down, but I didn't.

"Then Lin comes in and gets us back to where we need to be. He got us back to a .500 team, which I take my hat off to him for doing, and the team has been playing great. And then by him playing at a high level, me not playing hurt and not playing at the high level, that's what it's all coming from, being selfish? Maybe by me going out there and trying to win the games myself and playing hurt and thinking I'm doing something courageous, just trying to be a superhero -- doing that, I guess, only hurt the situation."

Anthony, the Knicks' lone representative in Sunday's All-Star Game, pointed out that people questioned whether he could play with Allen Iverson with the Nuggets and Amar'e Stoudemire with the Knicks. So it's not the first time he's heard this.

"When I came to New York, people questioned the me-and-Amar'e thing, about him already being there and him already having the city in his hands," he said. "Me coming in and how would I handle that. And now all of a sudden, it's Lin coming off the bench -- not even coming to the city -- coming off the bench and doing what he did."

Anthony knows the questions will continue until the Knicks mesh with everyone in the lineup. And he also knows things aren't about to quiet down anytime soon.

"I don't think the Lin-sanity is over with," he said with a smile.