It feels like piling on to share this on the same day that Matt Moore chronicled all of the New York Knicks’ misery since the millennium on this website, but here goes: In an interview with HoopsHype’s Alex Kennedy, Cleveland Cavaliers swingman Iman Shumpert said he felt bad for his former teammates when he was traded to Cleveland, adding that it felt like his new team “grabbed me out of hell.”

Here’s the full quote:

“I was never the new kid in school or anything, so this was the closest thing for me to changing schools and going through that. For me, it would’ve been cool if [things ended differently with the Knicks]. I was hurt when I got traded, so it would’ve been cool for me if I had at least gotten to play my last games with them. I was sitting out for like a month and by the time I got traded, it was a deflating feeling, especially with that season that we were having. I felt like I didn’t get a chance to help get us out of the hole, you know what I mean? (winces) I just felt bad and felt like we had dropped a bunch of games. I felt bitter that I had to leave on such a bad note. I just remember the feeling [sucked]. It was like, ‘Ah, I’m hurt, we’ve lost a bunch of games in a row and then I’m traded.’ Then, shortly after we walk in and we get to playing with the Cavs, we go on a long winning streak. I kept thinking back to my old teammates like, ‘Damn, I was hurt and we were losing. Now I come here and I’m playing well and the energy is great.’ I just felt like they kind of grabbed me out of hell. And every game was being showcased on TV and we’re winning. It was just crazy. I was happy, but I felt bad too.”

Shumpert was indeed in an awful place when the Cavs acquired him. The trade happened on Jan. 5, 2015, and he hadn’t played since Dec. 12 because of a dislocated shoulder. New York was 5-31 and was in the middle of a losing streak that would stretch to a franchise-worst 16 games. A week and a half before Shumpert and J.R. Smith were sent to Cleveland, Carmelo Anthony summed up the situation succinctly: “I feel what the fans are feeling. The fans are dying, we’re dying.”

If Anthony said the Knicks were dying, then Shumpert should catch no flak for saying they were in hell. The sad part is, while New York has completely changed the roster and the coaching staff since then, and it picked up Kristaps Porzingis in the draft as a reward for its awful season, the franchise is still flailing around, trying to regain relevance and establish an identity.

It’s also worth noting that Anthony told reporters that Shumpert and Smith were initially hurt when the deal went down. They loved being Knicks and playing in New York, even though things went completely off the rails.