Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Repairing the Nuggets and Carmelo Anthony’s relationship is overdue

Carmelo Anthony wears his heart on his sleeve, so he couldn’t help himself from T-ing off on the 7AM in Brooklyn podcast when discussing a subject that stuns a nerve. The matter at hand? He fears being forgotten by future generations because Nikola Jokić, the reigning Finals MVP, dons #15.

“They want you to play that game when you think of #15 in Denver. Now, to this generation, you think of Joker…” Anthony said.

In reality, the cowtown a mile above sea level wasn’t good enough for Anthony. So he demanded a trade to the New York Knicks, never breaking the Nuggets’ dry spell of not reaching the NBA Finals (until the 2023 outfit did). But the Finals? Anthony made a West Finals once in Denver and wants honorary treatment for scoring a bunch of points.

The funny thing is, he should get it. Despite that one time he refused to check back into a game in Detroit, or how he didn’t work hard enough on defense or the glass (averaged 6.3 per game as a Nugget). It can’t be forgotten how he cost his group with a 15-match suspension, going 7-8 without him for the melee in Madison Square Garden (six straight lost in between). On top of that, he said he was a “Knick at heart.”

Yet, Anthony is still one of the organization’s top contributors ever. But his approach is wrong. He has incorrectly interpreted Jokić wearing #15 as disrespect, but the Serbian center, who was picked 41st in round two of Draft night, during a Taco Bell ad and didn’t have the highest expectations from most hoop observers, has worn that number forever.

“I believe they gave him #15 to try to erase what I did…” Anthony said.

This is a terrible misunderstanding that won’t ingratiate himself to younger fans who missed out on his game, the ones he pissed off, and/or to the Kroenke family. He’s wrong in his thinking, but he still deserves respect from Denverites. Anthony hasn’t logged a minute for the Nuggets since Feb. 22, 2011, but he’s still 11th in games played; sixth in logged 3-pointers; fifth in rebounds (Someone alert George Karl); fourth in points, minutes; and second in converted free throws.

Relations can be saved by retiring #15 for Anthony and Jokić when the latter joins him in retirement. The New York Knicks honored Hall of Famers Earl Monroe and Dick McGuire, and they both share #15.

Who could forget Anthony, in baggy shorts, lobbing on the break over Yao Ming? What kind of Nuggets supporter will ignore how he and Chauncey Billups took over in the fourth quarter in Game 3 @ Dallas in 2009? Or how in his time in Denver, the team never missed the Playoffs when it had won 44 combined games in the two seasons before his arrival?

Alex English advanced to one conference final out of 16 series with the Nuggets.

Fat Lever made it to the Western Conference Finals on one occasion against 10 teams.

Byron Beck was with the Denver Rockets before they turned into the Nuggets, playing in 13 series and reaching the ABA Finals in 1976.

Skywalker David Thompson registered seven rounds and led the ABA Nuggets to the Finals in 1976 and then to the NBA’s WCF in 1978.

The “Horse” Dan Issel participated in 13 Playoff encounters and was on the ‘76 squad that reached the ABA Finals

Dikembe Mutombo left the first round once in five seasons as a Nugget -when he was on the eighth-seeded group that took out the Seattle Supersonics in five games in round one.

Doug Moe was an assistant for two years, made a pit stop in San Antonio, and subsequently returned and instructed the squad to 432 wins from 1980-90 and was coach of the year in 1988.

Anthony’s time in Denver peaked in 2009, the only instance he led them out of the first round, and when the unit fell off after five games to the Los Angeles Lakers in the WCF. Enough years have passed and one side should extend an olive branch to the other because it’s long overdue that Anthony is a member of the Nuggets family.

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