In a podcast called “7PM in Brooklyn”, hosted by Carmelo Anthony, the NBA legend said he felt disappointed when the Denver Nuggets decided to give jersey number 15 to Nikola Jokic.
Carmelo Anthony has 19 seasons playing in the NBA. In particular, the first 8 years of this legendary career played for the Denver Nuggets and was famous for the shirt number 15. Therefore, he considered the Denver Nuggets giving this shirt number to Nikola Jokic as an act of disrespect and disrespect. trying to erase his own contributions in the past.
“It was a disrespectful decision for me. Of course, Nikola Jokic can wear number 15 and he deserves what he has done. However, what I see is that the Denver Nuggets want to erase everything memories of the number 15 shirt I used to wear when I played there. What they want is that when it comes to the number 15 of the Denver Nuggets, it’s Nikola Jokic,” said Carmelo Anthony.
The reason why Carmelo Anthony feels dissatisfied is because he had a time when he was loved as the No. 1 star of the Denver Nuggets with the number 15 shirt on his back. Selected third in the 2003 NBA Draft, Carmelo Anthony averaged 24.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists in eight seasons playing for the Colorado team.
Carmelo Anthony was praised as a hero, a player who could compete fairly with LeBron James at the Cleveland Cavaliers at that time. However, everything changed 180 degrees when Carmelo Anthony moved to the New York Knicks in the 2010/11 season after a series of disagreements with the team’s leadership. This decision led to Denver Nuggets fans viewing Carmelo Anthony as a traitor.
However, Carmelo Anthony himself said he had no disagreement with the fans: “I never said anything bad about you (Nuggets fans). All you did was boo me. I Still scoring 40, 50 points in a match, while you guys don’t understand what you’re booing for. You think I’m a dissatisfied player and don’t want to stay on the team That’s because of what the media spreads in the newspapers”
“This is where it should be retired to be honest with you, just my opinion… I think that the history is here, it’s where it all started”. – Carmelo Anthony after a game in Denver in 2019. (h/t NBC Sports)
Jokic, who has worn No. 15 since his youth basketball days in Serbia, might have intended to pay homage to Anthony.
However, Anthony contends that the jersey change was orchestrated to unԀermine his accomplishments.
He sees it as a deliberate attempt to shift the narrative surrounding his time with the Nuggets.
While Jokic has since become the face of the franchise, Anthony emphasizes that the number 15 in Denver now symbolizes a different era-the Jоker’s era.
Anthony acknowledges the generational shift but believes the Nuggets are still holding onto a moment from over a decade ago, emphasizing that “this is 2010. This is 13 years ago.”
“When you think of 15 in Denver now, to this generation, you [think the] Jоker,” he said.
“And there’s nothing towards that. It’s just, it was two different generations. So that just goes to show me that y’all [The Nuggets] not past that moment. This is 2010. This is 13 years ago. So if you are, you are holding on to something that was 13 years ago.”
Unlike Melo, Jokic hasn’t forced his way out of the team at the end of his rookie contract either, signing the largest deal in NBA history with the Nuggets. If No. 15 is going up into the rafters one day, it is going to be for Jokic and not for Carmelo. While that is sad considering everything Anthony did for the franchise, there is no disputing Jokic’s impact on the franchise to have superseded what Melo achieved.
Melo is no longer the greatest Nugget to wear No. 15, as Nikola Jokic took the number when he came into the team as a second-round pick. Since then, Jokic has become arguably the greatest player for the franchise in the modern era. He is currently coming off back-to-back MVP wins.