Anthony calls Karl’s jabs ‘irrelevant’ | Thomas, Celtics getting on track | Marbury finding peace with NBA again | George: ‘Inconsistency’ is Pacers’ identity

No. 1: Anthony passes on firing back at Karl — In his forthcoming book, former Denver Nuggets coach George Karl takes some pointed shots at his one-time star in Denver, Carmelo Anthony. Word of those comments leaked out yesterday and Anthony and his current squad, the New York Knicks, defeated the Orlando Magic last night. After the game, Anthony chose to mostly not respond to what Karl had written, writes Marc Berman of the New York Post:

Carmelo Anthony said George Karl’s memoir rips are “irrelevant,” he’ll have his say in his own book and claimed he’s not even sure what his former coach means by “conundrum.”

“I’m past being disappointed,” Anthony said after the Knicks’ 106-95 victory over Orlando at the Garden. “I hope he just finds happiness in what he’s doing with his book. Hopefully it will bring him happiness.”

Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek fiercely defended Anthony against the attacks written in Karl’s soon-to-be-released memoir. As first reported Thursday by The Post, Karl took several personal shots at Anthony in “Furious George,” questioning his leadership, ability to share the glory and defensive aptitude.

According to an advanced copy obtained by The Post, Karl wrote Anthony’s 2011 trade to the Knicks was “sweet relief” and “like popping a blister.” He also wrote Anthony is a “conundrum.”

“It’s irrelevant,” said Anthony, who before the game refused to discuss Karl’s jabs. “The good thing is the truth of the matter is everyone else is speaking up for me from their own experience. So I don’t have to speak on it [until] I write my book later.”

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Anthony kept his sense of humor but clearly was irritated at the personal slings of his coach of six seasons.

“It’s tough,” Anthony said. “If this would have come out years ago — I haven’t been in Denver in six, seven years. When you’re there, it’s a different story than what you hear afterwards. I never knew it was this much. I never knew I was a — what’s the word, conundrum? I don’t even know what the hell that means.”

Karl alleged Anthony never was able to become the leader.

“I never knew that,” Anthony said. “That never was brought up. Anybody you ask, assistant coaches, players, front-office people, anybody you ask will sing a different tune when it comes to me and our mentality on that team. We came together, we stuck together as a team, and at the end of the day, that’s all we had. It took us far. Not far enough to where we were able to win a championship, but we came together as a team because of all that.”

Hornacek disputed Karl’s assertion Anthony can’t be a leader because of his distaste for defense.

“Things like that could be a distraction,” Hornacek said. “Depends how the player reacts. The biggest thing is Carmelo Anthony, for us, has been great — whatever happened in the past, let other guys talk about. What I’ve seen out of Carmelo here, he’s done everything we asked and what the coaches want him to do.”

Anthony added: “I don’t really have to speak on my experiences there. As long as I know what was going on and what happened and the truth, then I don’t have to speak on it.”

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“He [plays defense],” Hornacek said. “His leadership defensively is that. He’s a very smart player when he’s on the court. Plays are happening, you see him directing traffic out here to get us to where they need to be.

“He’s been a great player for a lot of years, helped a lot of teams. People have their opinions. Just move on and let it go. With Carmelo, he knows it’s in the past, whatever it is. His focus has really been on this team and the new players we have and try to be a leader for this team. It’s very commendable.”

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Karl also took down Anthony’s former Denver and Knicks teammates J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin, calling the trio “AAU babies,” defined as “the spoiled brats you see in junior golf and junior tennis.” He also said Anthony and Martin suffered from not having a father in their lives to show them how “to act like a man.” He called Smith’s entourage “a posse” and criticized the player’s father for teaching him to shoot all the time.

Martin responded with a vicious series of posts on Twitter, ripping Karl as a “selfish,unhappy,missable (sic),,cowardly person. No wonder he’s be fired every place he has coached.” Smith tweeted it was “sad” Karl is attempting to stay “relevant.”’

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No. 2: Celtics finding their way, identity now — Boston Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas has been sizzling this month, averaging 28.3 points per game, 5.9 assists per game and 1.1 steals. His numbers have not been wasted, either, as the Celtics are 7-4 this month after last night’s win against the Indiana Pacers. As Chris Forsberg of ESPN.com points out, Thomas’ efforts have also keyed the Celtics’ discovery of who they are and what their team’s calling card is:

In the aftermath of consecutive blowout losses to Denver and Washington in early November, Boston Celtics All-Star point guard Isaiah Thomas lamented his team’s lack of an identity.

“We’re not ourselves,” Thomas said. “We need to be the Celtic team that I’ve been a part of the last year and a half.”

The Celtics, playing without Al Horford and Jae Crowder at that time, did not use their health woes as a crutch. Boston’s struggles, including losing four of its first seven games, ran deeper than who was available, but players couldn’t help but wonder what was possible when the team had all its horses.

If the past four games are any indication, the Celtics — in the words of Dennis Green — are who we thought they were.

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Since Nov. 11, the Celtics are 14-8 and own a defensive rating of 100.9, the third-best mark in the league in that span. If Boston lost its identity early in the season, consider this recent stretch a lost-and-found bin.

Since Thomas returned from a groin injury last week, giving Boston its preferred starting five, the Celtics have not lost. For the season, the starting lineup of Thomas, Avery Bradley, Crowder, Amir Johnson and Horford is 11-3.

Of the 26 lineups that have played at least 150 minutes this season, Boston’s starting five ranks sixth in the NBA with a net rating of plus-9.5. Horford, sidelined for much of November because of a concussion, clearly makes his teammates better when he’s on the floor. Crowder, sidelined by an ankle injury in November, finally seems healthy and on Thursday turned in one of his best efforts of the season, including spearheading a 17-0 run in the second quarter while playing with a reserve lineup.

Just like it was prudent not to overreact to Boston’s early struggles, these Celtics are trying not to get overly excited about this recent stretch.

“We talked about it [earlier in the season]: When we get healthy, that was going to be helpful,” coach Brad Stevens told reporters in Indiana. “We’re still not as good as we need to be, that’s for sure. We gotta make more strides.”

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The Celtics still have to show they can consistently beat good teams. Tuesday’s win in Memphis was a rare triumph against a team over .500. With a crowded pack behind them in the East, the Celtics must maintain their success in a quest for a good playoff seeding.

But it seems fair to say Boston looks a lot more like the team that many projected before the season to push the Cavaliers in the East. There have been small glimpses of what this team is capable of, though the Celtics have rarely put together a full 48-minute effort even during this brief winning streak.

But considering where the Celtics were six weeks ago, there has been progress. And health has been a big factor. The Celtics have rediscovered their identity, and now it’s time for them to figure out exactly how good they can be.

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No. 3: Marbury mends fences with NBA — In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Stephon Marbury was one of the potential superstars of the NBA. By the end of the 2002-03 season, he was a two-time All-Star and had legions of fans across the NBA. A trade from the Phoenix Suns to the New York Knicks failed to take his career to the next level and after a journeyman NBA existence, Marbury found a home in China with the Beijing Ducks. He has led the team to three championships and is an adored figure there, but always felt on the outside with the NBA. In an interview with Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated, Marbury opens up about his NBA days and how he and the league are mending fences:

Marbury is the last notable draftee still playing from an illustrious 1996 NBA draft class that included Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen, Steve Nash, Jermaine O’Neal, Peja Stojakovic, Marcus Camby and Derek Fisher. He averaged 19.3 points, 7.6 assists and 1.2 steals per game during his 13-year NBA career, including averaging over 21 points and eight assists while with the New Jersey Nets and Phoenix Suns. The two-time NBA All-Star believes that if it weren’t for his last two seasons struggling with the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics, respectively, he would have averaged more than 20 points and eight assists for his NBA career.

“I remember those days when it wasn’t fun with what I contributed on and off the court. I thought the league was mad about me messing up their money in Minnesota,” Marbury said.

Marbury believes his problems in the NBA began when he received his wish and was traded from the Minnesota Timberwolves, ending his star matchup with Kevin Garnett in 1999. Marbury said he wanted to leave primarily because the harsh Minneapolis winters were too cold for him and caused him too many dangerous spinouts on the roads.

Marbury believes his outspoken nature didn’t jibe with the NBA either. He put a tattoo of his Starbury logo on his bald head. He sold affordable basketball sneakers for $15 while chastising Michael Jordan for selling expensive basketball shoes that inner-city kids have killed each other over. Marbury didn’t think former NBA commissioner David Stern was a fan of his either during his reign.

“It was basically set in stone of who they were going to push and how they were going to push them … ,” Marbury said. “The people who complained, who had strong personalities, were basically speaking truth and what’s real instead of falling back, just staying quiet and not being penalized for it. Guys now have more of a voice.”

Marbury’s NBA career started spiraling to an end when coach Mike D’Antoni of his hometown Knicks benched him during the 2008-09 season. While on the pine, Marbury says, he began thinking about life after basketball before the Knicks released him on Feb. 21, 2009. D’Antoni declined comment on Marbury’s Knicks days, but wished him the best through ESPN.com’s Calvin Watkins. Marbury finished the 2008-09 season, his last in the NBA, coming off the bench for the Celtics.

“It hurt more because of the way it was done. We were winning by a lot of points and he still didn’t put me in,” Marbury said.

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After turning down his lone NBA offer with the Celtics during the 2009 offseason, Marbury often lay in bed depressed, eating not much more than cereal. Inspiration from his wife, Tasha, later got him thinking about a return to basketball. In January 2010, he became the first notable NBA player to depart to play in China, starting with Shanxi.

“There were like 5,000 fans [at the airport]. To be greeted the way I was greeted was amazing,” said Marbury, who arrived solo without his wife and three kids.

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Success in China made it easy for Marbury to put his fall from the NBA in the back of his mind, at least until the NBA brought its show to his town on Oct. 14.

“It was no secret that the blood was bad. David Stern did not want me. When people asked about me, the NBA wouldn’t mention my name,” Marbury said, reflecting on the past.

The Rockets, now coached by D’Antoni, were in Beijing to play the New Orleans Pelicans in a preseason game. NBA commissioner Adam Silver and lots of other NBA executives were in town, too. Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famers Yao Ming, Gary Payton and Dikembe Mutombo were there, as well as former NBA standouts Kenny Smith and A.C. Green.

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The NBA was made aware that Marbury was in town after being informed by ESPN. Several hours later, the league offered Marbury and his two personal managers suite access instead, which he was initially uncomfortable with.

Marbury’s original plan was to just stay for a quarter before heading to his downtown Beijing home. He had already practiced twice that day and he had a 4 a.m. car ride to the airport for a Ducks preseason road game. After learning that Silver said in a pregame press conference that he was happy about his success and looked forward to shaking his hand during the game, Marbury’s comfort level began to change.

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Once Marbury arrived at the suite made available solely for him and his two friends, he smiled very brightly and seemed overwhelmed with surprise. Adoring fans looking into his suite from next door, above and below chanted, “Mar-Burr-Ree … Mar-Burr-Ree,” and took pictures as he seemed astonished by it all. By the second quarter, he was still there, comfortable and smiling.

Next, Payton showed up. The two former competitors laughed, hugged, told old stories and took selfies. Silver lived up to his word by coming to the suite with deputy commissioner Mark Tatum and former NBA Inside Stuff host Ahmad Rashad. Marbury’s longtime trusted friend Chrysa Chin, a former NBA employee who now works for the National Basketball Players Association as its executive vice president of strategy and development, also stopped by, hugged him warmly and expressed respect during their long talk.

“Basketball is basketball,” Silver told Marbury in the suite. “I think he’s demonstrated that. Fans have continued to follow you from the States and see your success here. It’s fantastic. It just shows that basketball is played at a high level all over the world …

“Steph is a trailblazer to a lot of players who have followed you here, a lot of other American players. If you look at the quality of the CBA, before it was the EuroLeague. This is the next best thing to the NBA. We’ve done a lot of things with Yao [Ming] with the Sharks [Shanghai]. The way we’re trying to help China is to develop more of their players.”

Before Silver departed, he asked Marbury to visit him at his Manhattan office the next time he was in New York. Marbury embraced the NBA reunion that nearly brought him to tears and says he feels a “different energy” about the league now from Silver.

“Now I feel like I can walk into the NBA office and say hello,” Marbury said. “[Silver] didn’t have to come up there to the suite. I felt really good about that. It was so positive.”

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No. 4: George, Miles question Pacers’ direction — Before the 2016-17 season got rolling, many were predicting big things for the Indiana Pacers after they made solid offseason additions (Jeff Teague, Thaddeus Young) to a youthful core (Paul George, Myles Turner and more). Yet Indiana has been at or below .500 all season long and are in the middle of the NBA’s pack in both Offensive and Defensive Rating this month. Last night’s home loss to the Boston Celtics left George and fellow veteran C.J. Miles wondering if the team’s players realize just how inconsistent they all are. Nate Taylor of the Indianapolis Star has more:

Paul George and C.J. Miles didn’t want to concern themselves with the small details of Thursday’s 109-102 loss to the Boston Celtics.

Sure, the Pacers score just nine points in the second quarter, their fewest in any quarter this season, to allow the Celtics to take a commanding lead they never relinquished. They Pacers committed 19 turnovers, too, which coach Nate McMillan was quick reference after the game. And the Pacers could never a suitable solution to stop Boston’s Isaiah Thomas, who led the Celtics with 28 points and nine assists.

But instead focusing on those statistics, George and Miles elected to take the long view of the Pacers’ season that continues to be perplexing after 31 games.

First, George acknowledged the Pacers’ lack of a true sense of their style of play on offense.

“Our identity is inconsistency,” George said. “We’ve yet to spread from the pack (in the Eastern Conference) and we’ve yet to string some games together. We’ve yet to take a step back and look at the big picture and point out some things that we’re doing well over the course of this season. So really, we have nothing to really fall back on right now.”

Miles followed by questioning the Pacers’ intensity and overall mood at times on the court. He wondered why they play certain quarters, such as Thursday’s second, with such a defeated mentality and then play with the proper energy, as they did when they tried to rally in the fourth quarter.

“You still look around sometimes and it looks like we don’t enjoy the game enough,” Miles said. “You see big plays being made and sometimes you, like, see guys exhale instead of getting hyped about it, getting excited about it. I think we’ve got to get back to being passionate and remembering we’ve got one of the best jobs in the world, to play basketball for a living. At the most, we work for two and half hours a day. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not making it sound easy, but we’ve got to remember that this is the game that we first fell in love with that got us this far.”

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“They did a great job of holding and playing physical on us,” George said. “The officiating let them get away with a lot of stuff. It made it tough for us, but regardless we have to be strong as team. I take credit on that for not getting us ready. Coach gave us that game plan of they’re going to hold and grab and play physical. I should have been the one to retaliate on that and be just as physical.”

The Celtics, unlike the Pacers, ran their offense to methodical perfection in the first half. Boston scored 17 consecutive points to begin the second quarter. From there, the Celtics controlled the game’s tempo.

Before the game, George was hopeful he and his teammates would trust each other more on offense after their disappointing loss Tuesday to the New York Knicks. Too often Thursday, however, the Pacers were reduced to playing their offense through one-on-one isolation plays. The results were unsuccessful, as the Pacers trailed by as many as 17 points in the third quarter.

After the game, Miles called the Celtics a good team. It was a distinction he couldn’t give to the Pacers.

“The good teams, they win when they’re supposed to win and they figure out how to win when they’re not supposed to win,” Miles said. He later added: “We’re a little frustrated, but not so much that we can’t do it. We’re frustrated because we can. The biggest thing is we know the type of players we have. It’s about us executing everything. We’ve got to be better as far as coming together. It’s about us wanting it.”

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SOME RANDOM HEADLINES: If you missed it last night, here’s Shaquille O’Neal’s jersey retirement ceremony with the Miami Heat … Fantastic long read on Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr … Speaking of the Warriors, congratulations to All-Star forward Draymond Green after his son was born Thursday … Beloved Warriors fan Helen “Sweetie” Brooks passed away yesterday at the age of 107 … The Miami Heat may be open to trading star point guard Goran Dragic …