We commend you for having a great, prolific career, and being one of the
greatest players to ever play the game. Also, you are arguably the greatest
college freshmen to ever play, and arguably the greatest Olympic basketball
player to ever play ( but that goes to Jordan!).

We salute you.

I know he gets flack for his playing style sometimes, but...bully ball Melo, in Denver was one of my favorite things ever. On top of being incredibly skilled with superior footwork...Melo was bigger and stronger than most...and he would bang it on you with no warning.

My personal favorite player forever

wish he could have got a ring even it was just as a bench vet late in his career.

even tho he went to Cuse

>We commend you for having a great, prolific career, and being
>one of the
>greatest players to ever play the game. Also, you are arguably
>the greatest
>college freshmen to ever play, and arguably the greatest
>Olympic basketball
>player to ever play ( but that goes to Jordan!).
>
>We salute you.
>
>

Even though his game is all DMV/Baltimore

The '09 WCF run, 32-8 to end the season after we hired Karl in '05, the 33 point quarter against the Wolves, on and on and on. Gave the Nuggets a relevance they never had in my lifetime (to say the least), the significance of which is hard to put into words but IYKYK. And certainly moved the meter on these boards in a way few others did outside of Bron, AI and Kobe.

A top-3 player in franchise history and easy first-ballot HOF'er.

Top 3 spots are auto

Jokic
English
Thompson


Then Melo/ Mutumbo

If you think he should be there, have at it. Strong arguments either way.

That team w Kenyon Martin was so fun to cheer for (except George Karl)

>The '09 WCF run, 32-8 to end the season after we hired Karl
>in '05, the 33 point quarter against the Wolves, on and on and
>on. Gave the Nuggets a relevance they never had in my
>lifetime (to say the least), the significance of which is hard
>to put into words but IYKYK. And certainly moved the meter on
>these boards in a way few others did outside of Bron, AI and
>Kobe.
>
>A top-3 player in franchise history and easy first-ballot
>HOF'er.

They pulled out all the stops for Deke (which I was lucky to be at). I'd expect something similar or better.

Assuming he hasn't, it's a bit weird in my opinion that he seemingly has a better relationship with the Knicks front office than the Nuggets front office since he literally reached high peaks with the Nuggets than he did with the Knicks. I'm referring to his playoff career of course in terms of him reaching the Western Conference Finals with the Nuggets.

If he's been cordial with the Nuggets since leaving, my apologies for the erroneous assumption.

https://youtu.be/e8ufxgQuTus

255 mark


>Assuming he hasn't, it's a bit weird in my opinion that he
>seemingly has a better relationship with the Knicks front
>office than the Nuggets front office since he literally
>reached high peaks with the Nuggets than he did with the
>Knicks. I'm referring to his playoff career of course in terms
>of him reaching the Western Conference Finals with the
>Nuggets.
>
>If he's been cordial with the Nuggets since leaving, my
>apologies for the erroneous assumption.

…And less of Melo himself

He always had outspoken detractors, but his departure (which really wasn't that bad) gave the people who wanted to demonize him something to really dig in with. And all of the criticism he got, even when things were going great, always felt very rooted in 'cism. Unless you're the Broncos, Denver is a really shitty sports town... and doubly so if you're the Nuggets.

I'm optimistic that the relationship can be mended a little bit. There will always be people who just will not like him or give him his due. But it seems like for most fans here with a functioning brain, it's all water under the bridge. Either way, you can't tell the story of the team w/o Melo, so they better show him some fucking respect.

(the double 15s hanging in the rafters 20 years from now will be hilarious though)

but I wonder if Carmelo Anthony cares that deeply about wanting to get love from Denver fans. The trade from the Nuggets was quite sometime ago and to my knowledge, I haven't heard him make a big deal about linking up with the current Nuggets front office. Like I said before, if you know something I don't in that regard, I will stand corrected.

As petty and vindictive as Dolan is, it seems so odd that Carmelo can get front row tickets to one of the recent Knicks playoff games and get a standing ovation, but its entirely possible he won't even set foot in Denver's current arena for one of the Finals games.

When he gets into the Hall of Fame, I'm hoping he'll get some modicum of love from Nuggets fans since large parts of his career took place there. It's somewhat interesting to me that Carmelo Anthony could be somewhat of a divisive figure given how seemingly easy going he is.

The truth is that it never really felt like Melo really wanted to be here, long-term. Some of that relates to reasons I described. Another huge aspect of it would be the George Karl of it all, especially as more and more stuff comes out dealing with what miserable POS Karl was. And then there's other potential items related to his desire to be here (especially vs a market like NYC) that would be even more speculative and really doesn't matter at this point.

And let's keep it really real - Melo didn't do enough to warrant unconditional love during his time here. He ain't getting a statue, and shouldn't. But he should be shown love and celebrated as one of the great, great players we've ever had. And his time here will always have a lot of sentimental value for me.

https://theathletic.com/4541323/2023/05/22/carmelo-anthony-denver-nuggets/

During one of his final visits here as an opposing player, in December of 2019, Carmelo Anthony was tugged forward, invited to gaze at the future. He was questioned about the eventual end of his storied career — which officially arrived with a retirement announcement on social media Monday after 19 NBA seasons — and asked to envision where his jersey would one day be hung.

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“This is where it should be retired, to be honest with you,” Anthony said that night. “Just my opinion, man. The history is here. This is where it all started.”

Then, Anthony smiled, acknowledging the complication attached to the idea of raising his No. 15 into the Ball Arena rafters.

“Joker’s got 15 now,” Anthony said, referring to Nikola Jokić, who Monday night will try to lead the Nuggets to the NBA Finals for the first time in their history. “(So) we’ll see. We still have time for that.”


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

Like somebody else said in this thread, Melo was the clear Rookie of the Year in 03-04, LeBron simply carried a worse team to more mediocre heights and had the Sports Illustrated/ESPN launchpad.


Part of why I (admittedly in increasingly Quixotic fashion) attached myself to the Melo wagon was that he was exactly the player you wanted in the mid-2000s and he was immediately that dude in a way most rookies just weren't. Yes, he wound up being hard to build around and teaming him with Iverson, while a personal wet dream, proved to be poor team building...but J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin were also integral to those teams. They were highly emotional and volatile in an era when stoicism ruled, with Camby hurt too often to provide that sort of foundation.


It was also a shockingly dark time for rotation guards, and Karl did what he could with what he had but we're talking Anthony Carter, Chucky Atkins, Yakhouba Diawara, Sonny Weems, Dahntay Jones and Arron Afflalo. Some of them had moments, but when the bigs philosophy was so defensively focused, this is an embarrassing role call of backup playmakers.


But more importantly than any of that, while you probably can't pin the Jokic pick his trade to the Knicks, Murray is a direct result of that trade. And those bizarro Knicks Nuggets rosters had weirdly fun and successful seasons alongside Melo thriving in New York, the rare instance of a superstar trade treating both teams well.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

But I always connect Melo to the Nuggets.

Amazing career - one of the best to ever do it.

who was brought in by the Lakers to try to help them to win a chip.

But yeah he is a Knick

Melo played one of the best overall games I’ve seen in the Final 4 against Texas.

Hell of a pro career. Glad he got that last run, and sports media nerd statboys stopped being so weird and let him get his deserved flowers.

I get why he didn't, but he carried that Nuggets team to a 43-39 record and into the play-offs. Post all-star break that year, he was one of the best players in league.

We were all Melo in that moment when he looked at Rihanna in that party, ready to risk it all.

He was always one of our own.

wish his career coulda went differently especially towards the end