Even though their relations have warmed up a bit lately, the divorce between Carmelo Anthony and the Nuggets was painful. So not sure that the Colorado franchise will one day retire the number 15 from “Melo”, especially since it is now the number of… Nikola Jokic. A small detail that always sticks in the retiree's throat.
“It was a petty move”, explains Carmelo Anthony in the “7 PM in Brooklyn” podcast. “It wasn't, like, 'Oh, you have a few numbers to choose from.' It was: 'Here, take the 15'. »
For the three-time Olympic champion (2008, 2012 and 2016), it was a way for Denver to erase his legacy.
“I was like, ‘Damn, what’s going on? The 15th ?' Now think about it, it's because of the narrative they put out there. 'He wanted to leave. He wanted to leave. Nah. But why disrespect me by offering him this number? The lack of respect you showed by offering this number showed me that you just wanted to erase everything that happened before. So yeah, fuck them all. By doing this, you humiliated me in front of the whole world. Ok. I never said anything bad about you.”
Obviously, Carmelo Anthony doesn't know that 15 was Nikola Jokic's number in Europe, which he wore since his debut, as it was the biggest number in his youth team's jersey set.
” I do not know (on why Nikola Jokic took number 15). Maybe he wanted to wear it to pay homage to me.”he imagines. “But what I believe is that they gave him 15 to try to erase what I did… The only thing I know is that I am convinced that it was done to purpose. It was a slap in the face.”
A delayed slap in the face because Carmelo Anthony left the Rockies in February 2011, and Nikola Jokic only got his number back four and a half years later, following his arrival in Colorado in 2015.
Perhaps the real slap in the face is that the Nuggets had already given number 15 to Anthony Randolph in 2013…
