The relationship between Carmelo Anthony and the Nuggets organization appears to still have some open wounds.
Appearing recently on the “7 PM in Brooklyn” podcast, Anthony revealed his dissatisfaction that Nikola Jokic is wearing his no. 15 for Denver — and apparently believes there was an ulterior motive in the matter from the team’s perspective.
“It was a petty maneuver. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh we’ve got numbers to choose from.’ It was like, ‘Here, you’ve got 15,’” Anthony said, as covered by Bro Bible.
“And y’all put Jokic in the middle of that. He doesn’t know what the f— is going on. He could’ve been like, ‘I wanna wear 15.’ He could’ve been like, ’15 is here. I can wear 15. That’s Melo’s number.’ He could’ve worn it because he wanted to pay homage. But what I believe is that they gave him 15 to try to erase what I did.”
Anthony played his first 7 1/2 NBA seasons with the Nuggets, making the playoffs each of the first seven years and reaching the 2009 Western Conference Finals before losing to the Lakers.
Feeling he’d topped out, he forced his way to the Knicks in the middle of the 2010-11 season, and he seems to believe that the bitterness of the Nuggets due to the trade demand continues to fester.
Anthony gave some insight into his thinking in the trade demand on a different episode of the podcast, when he relayed that he had advised former Blazers teammate Damian Lillard to leave Portland.
“We spoke. I was telling Dame, ‘Man get the f–k out here [Portland],” Anthony said, laughing.
“It wasn’t like a knock to Portland but it was, ‘Champ, you in the same situation I was in, in Denver. Our loyalty gonna kill us — It’s gonna kill us!’ What do we have to see or know to make the decision? For me they had to hit rock bottom for it to be like, ‘Alright I’m gonna go.’”