ATLANTA — Carmelo Anthony, ranked fourth among Eastern Conference frontcourt players in the first wave of All-Star voting, got a little help from his friends Monday in the voting while also showing support for teammate Kristaps Porzingis.
On Monday, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade each tagged Anthony in tweets with the #NBAVote hashtag. James also tweeted out the hashtag for his Cavs teammates Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, Wade and Chris Paul, another member of the Carmelo clique.
In turn, Anthony tweeted out support for James, Wade, Paul and Porzingis, who was ranked eighth among Eastern Conference frontcourt players in the first look at voting. Trailing James, Paul George and center Andre Drummond, Anthony’s string of seven straight All-Star starts is in jeopardy.
In his tweet supporting Porzingis, Anthony added a special wrinkle — the hashtag #KnicksToThe6, referring to this year’s game being in Toronto. The next voting update comes Thursday.
“He should be up there,’’ Anthony said of Porzingis. “He should get some votes. I’d love to be with him in Toronto. Of course he’ll be in the rookie game, but just for him to have that experience [in the All-Star Game]. For sure, he’ll be in there [the All-Star Game] for a long time.’’
Asked about James and Wade tweeting for him to be an All-Star, Anthony said, “That’s what friends are for.’’
“The way things are going down in social media, a lot of people want to see that,’’ Anthony said. “Days of sitting back and not doing nothing and relying on everyone else to do it, those days are over with.’’
After the Christmas release of the first voting results, Anthony’s celebrity wife, La La, began a Twitter campaign on his behalf. She has 3.4 million followers. Anthony trailed Drummond by about 80,000 votes, so the push from LeBron and La La could close the gap.
Anthony said he didn’t ask for La La’s help.
“Your wife will always support you,’’ Anthony said. “I can’t tell her what to do. She’s got her own team and own thing.
“Sometimes we have arguments over social media,’’ Anthony added. “I’m more the stay-away-from-it. She’s more day-to-day basis. I try to tell her you don’t need to do it. She says, ‘Who are you to tell me? I got more followers than you.’’’ (Actually, Anthony has 7 million followers.)
On Tuesday in Atlanta, the Knicks try to match last season’s win total of 17. It’s the one-year anniversary of when president Phil Jackson blew up a 5-win club by releasing Samuel Dalembert and trading J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert to Cleveland hours before the Knicks played in Memphis.
Smith and Shumpert were Anthony’s two closest friends on the club.
“That was a tough night,” Anthony said. “Coming into the arena, not knowing what’s going on, and it just happened like that. I had to deal with that situation and still go out on the court and try to perform and put it behind you. It was a long couple of hours when we got to the arena. I’ll never forget that.’’
But nobody is much lamenting the maneuver nowadays. Anthony even said Tuesday this current cast is close to becoming his favorite group of teammates.
“It’s starting to become that,’’ Anthony said.