By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Carmelo Anthony believes the Denver Nuggets chose to give Nikola Jokic the No. 15 jersey as a way of insult against him.
Anthony, who wrote the #15 jersey since his college days in Syracuse and through his first seven and a half seasons in the NBA that he spent with the Nuggets, accused Denver of displaying “petty” behavior in handing Jokic the same number.
“It was a petty maneuver, “Anthony said. “Why did you disrespect by even offering that [number]? The disrespect in offering that showed me that you wanted to erase everything that went prior. You said ‘f–k’ me. That’s what meant to the rest of the world. I never said anything bad about you. Y’all booed me. You booed me when I had 40. You still me even after I had a 50-point game.”
“And you put Jokic in the middle of that,” Anthony added. “He doesn’t know the fuzz. He could’ve been ‘Oh #15 is here, I can wear it as homage’. But what I believe is that they gave him #15 because they wanted to erase what I did.”
“Because now when you think #15 in Denver, now, to this generation, you think of the Joker,” Melo also mentioned. “There’s nothing towards that. It was just two different generations. But y’all show me you aren’t past that moment.”
Jokic was actually wearing a No. 15 jersey long before he moved to the NBA with the Nuggets in 2015, more than four years after Melo moved from Denver to the New York Knicks on a trade. The Serbian star center actually commented on that following the 125-113 win over the New Orleans Pelicans Friday (12/1).
“I think I used #15 my whole life,” Jokic said adding that he knew that Anthony wore that number before him. “Of course. He was a great player.”