National Basketball Association

Report: Mike D'Antoni breaks silence

Published May. 21, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

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Former Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni has broken his silence and insisted he was not forced to resign on March 14, saying it was his decision alone and that "an obstacle had to be removed."

D'Antoni, however, would not point his finger directly at Carmelo Anthony.

In an interview posted on SI.com on Monday, D'Antoni said, "I absolutely resigned. I was in my car driving to shootaround and it just came to me. 'That's it. It's inevitable. I have to resign. We're not going anywhere,' and I made the decision then and there."

Hours after the morning shootaround, the Knicks announced D'Antoni's resignation amidst a six-game losing streak, an 18-24 record and a New York Post report that Anthony told a confidant he wanted a trade unless he got an assurance D'Antoni would not be back next season.

"I'm just not going to get into specifics," D'Antoni said. "It came to the point I had to resign. That's all. It was time. We weren't going anywhere and I was the coach."

Asked if Anthony fit into his offensive philosophy of ball movement and speed, D'Antoni said, "There are always things that can be done by mixing it up. Now, was it the best situation for my coaching philosophy? No. But there's never one answer for why things don't work out.

"I'm not going into any woe is me," he added. "We got to a point where we had problems, we could not solve them, and an obstacle had to be removed."

According to Post sources, when D'Antoni met with Knicks general manager Glen Grunwald and owner James Dolan on March 14, he raised the possibility of Anthony being shipped to the Nets for Deron Williams.

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