Carmelo Anthony Comments on Charles Oakley, State of Knicks Organization

The New York Knicks dropped their fourth straight game Friday in a 131-123 loss to the Denver Nuggets at Madison Square Garden.

Combine those woes with bad blood between Charles Oakley and owner James Dolan that has boiled over in recent days, and it's clear the franchise is in an ominous place.

After Friday's defeat, Carmelo Anthony said as much during his postgame meeting with reporters:

"

What happened is just an accumulation of incident on top of incident on top of everything that's going on, that's surrounding the New York Knicks organization right now. It's just kind of this cloud over us right now that we have to figure out a way to get out of it. I think you have to be in it, you have to be going through it, in order to understand it. From the outside looking in, it looks bad. And it's even worse when you're getting through it.

"

In the aftermath of Oakley's tiff with MSG security Wednesday evening, Dolan told The Michael Kay Show on Friday that the former Knicks enforcer has been banned from the arena.

However, Dolan emphasized the ban is not permanent.

Beyond Oakley's spat with ownership, the Knicks have also had to deal with distractions incited by team president Phil Jackson, who has taken various shots at Anthony throughout the season.

It's been theorized that those jabs have been used to get Anthony to waive his no-trade clause in advance of the Feb. 23 trade deadline, but the 32-year-old doesn't seem to have any intention of bolting the Big Apple.

Citing sources, The Vertical's Adrian Wojnarowski reported "Jackson's public campaign to pressure Carmelo Anthony into waiving his no-trade clause is working to harden Anthony's resolve to remain with the franchise."

Up next for the Knicks on the schedule? The San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers. Still, Anthony remained positive.

"When you look at that, it's about putting a couple games together, and anything can happen," he said, per SB Nation's Kristian Winfield. "So yeah, we're still optimistic about making the playoffs and what we can do. We just have to start doing it on a consistent basis."

The Knicks are 22-33 and 12th in the Eastern Conference standings after starting the season 14-10. However, the eighth-place Detroit Pistons are only 25-29.