From Carmelo’s interview with 7PM in Brooklyn: https://x.com/7PMinBrooklyn/status/1745506560158392777?s=20
A bit of a narcissistic take by Carmelo Anthony here. Jokic was a second round pick who wore #15 for his team in Serbia. This is certainly a take that will be widely accepted I’m sure. I hope all this context meets this subs weird post requirements.
by Piano_Fingerbanger
46 Comments
Pretty sure he wore 15 growing up because that was the only jersey that fit him.
Edit: yeah apparently 15 is the largest youth jersey https://x.com/markocantdunk/status/1745562256543191158
That’s sad. Melo had a complicated and imo highly underrated run in Denver, which he never gets enough credit for, but what he’s done since leaving there has really soured it. I just feel bad, he’s one of the best scorers ever, he should be above this, but he’s clearly still bitter and hasn’t found peace.
Melo going out sad
Uh whats his accomplishment?
I always thought Jokic reached out to take that number. Players usually do that but I don’t think it’s a big deal.
Even the Nuggets didn’t know Jokic would be this good when they drafted him and gave him a number.
Jokic is on a completely different tier from melo.
That being said giving melo’s number away(especially with how liberal nba teams are with retiring them) to a random 2nd round draft pick was crazy.
I mean it was pretty bizarre at the time but… like common yah big baby who gives a shit go drown your tears in the wine you made with the millions of dollars you made from them for playing a game.
I don’t understand why this is a bad thing? It’s a number…
Giving at the time your franchise most decorated player of all time number to a 2nd round rookie could absolutely be interpreted as a petty maneuver tbf.
Melo acting like everyone knew Jokic’s gonna become an All Time great. In reality only EG knew It from the start.
Man this is sad, Melo is why I fell in love with the Nuggets as a kid. But fuck him, I honestly don’t like the dude at all anymore and we have our real goat wearing #15 now.
Definitely. The Nuggets drafted Jokic knowing he’d be an All time great, multiple time MVP, and finals MVP, that they let Jokic wear 15, so he’ll always be known as a legendary Nuggets player who wears number 15, just to make Carmelo mad, and erase his accomplishments like losing to Kobe in the conference finals, and yeah nothing else
Classic Melo.
Never knows when to stop taking shots.
What the hell did he even accomplish in Denver lmao. Bro was the most overrated star of the 2000’s.
Congratulations, Melo, you are a Nugget legend for making it out of the first round *one time*.
Aside from their one good run in 2009, the Nuggets only won ONE playoff game per year, except for 2008 where they won ZERO playoff games, and 2010 where they won TWO playoff games– against a team missing two starters.
Remember the Jeremy Lin situation?
Carmelo is one of the most insecure stars in NBA history.
Part of it is bad luck. No one expected a second round draft pick who got stashed in his first year to end up becoming the best player in franchise history. The other part is just brutal reality. Jokic is a much better player than Melo ever was. Jersey retirements are ultimately done at the FO’s discretion, and with the way Melo went out, they weren’t going to give him that honour.
Also, the fact that this is his takeaway 12 years later is really telling. A guy like this definitely wouldn’t have wanted Jeremy Lin to shine.
Carmelo is who Kobe haters thought Kobe was
Jokic is 3x as good as your prime lil bro
This is pretty sad if melo actually believes it’s outta spite lmao
Normally, teams would deny rookie free agents and second round picks from claiming the number of a Franchise Great. So the Nuggets giving Carmelo’s number to Jokic was indeed petty, regardless of the fact that Jokic wore that number in Serbia.
But in Carmelo’s case, he demanded a trade out of Denver. It was a very public and acrimonious split of his own doing. He should have no expectations of the Nuggets retiring his number after that.
So they gave a second round pick the jersey #of a likely HOF then to be petty. That’s some low effort pettiness.
[all of Melo’s titles erased]
Wow it worked
Melo needs to quiet down. All he’s doing is proving how petty he is.
All those stories about being jealous of Lin and demanding stats? Even more believable now.
Dave Thompson and Fat Lever are examples of jerseys retired in Denver. After they left, a number of players wore their numbers for the Nuggets. It is not uncommon to wear a number that hasn’t been retired yet. Also Jokic wore No. 15 for his Serbian team before coming to the Nuggets.
he’s been wearing 15 since megaleks?
I guarantee they didn’t put as much thought into this as he has.
Denver may have briefly considered it, but it’s likely more due to the fact hat Melo didn’t really accomplish anything there worth retiring his number over.
> to erase his accomplishments.
There’s nothing to erase to begin with.
This reads as super duper insecure
I mean, Jokic has pretty much outdone Melo in just about every way. If Melo put his ego aside and brought them a ring, or hell, even just stuck with them or left on better terms, then I could see where he’s coming from. But *this* def comes off as petty.
Carmelo does NOT deserve a jersey retirement ffs
Bro is hurt because nuggets retiring 15 for jokic
They knew the player they drafted during a Taco Bell commercial would outshine Melo.
I swear takes like this sum up why Melo’s career went the way it did. Still the most fun player to ever watch put the ball in the basket but come on.
The whole lore around numbers in general is so silly. There are like 5 players who have an “iconic” number, the rest just have numbers.
I have felt so vindicated for how much I fucking hate this guy. He was the most overrated black hole since NGC 1277
Melo narcissistic? No way! The guy who ran Jeremy Lin out of town when the team was finally winning without him while he was injured? Then took shots at him? The guy who gets mad if the team wins but he doesn’t have like 20 plus shot attempts per Chauncey Billups? No way! /s
Hey melo, say something that will make nuggets fans hate you all over again.
Melo thinking his #15 is just like #23 is classic melo
Jokic wore 15 at Mega Basket before he even thought about coming to the NBA, and the number wasn’t retired at the time (and still isn’t), but sure, Nuggets gave it to Jokic to spite Melo.
Accomplishment? Jokic is an MVP. Carmelo was never even the best in the league at his position, no defense having shot chucker who needs a team around him to make it to the second round at best. Man is a walking joke who erased his own legacy there when he decided to force his way out of Denver
What a weak ass cringy nephew take. This is what people say when they feel like they are not disrespected enough.
The Melo era has constant revisionist history. He wasn’t more talented than David Thompson, not as beloved as Dan Issel, and didn’t accomplish more than Alex English.
If anything, the Melo era is largely viewed disappointing because he was the face of such a fast turnaround and he only got out of the first round towards the end. People forget this,but in ‘03, he was supposed to be the natural rival to Lebron like Bird/Magic. The first couple seasons were viewed as a success, but once he got the DUI and they plateaued with first round exits when Lebron and Wade were having way more playoff success, it kind of soured. Melo was regarded as selfish and not a winning player
Only when they made the WCF did it feel like Melo was reaching his potential, and he only played there one more season and forced his way out in a pretty nasty divorce. Fans in Denver also had lost patience because we had just gone through that with Jay Cutler right before.
I personally am a Melo fan because of what that era meant to people who grew up with that 03 draft class, but it’s absolutely fair to view him with indifference or as a disappointment. He should get it retired eventually, but a long time from now and after Jokic.
Hey Melo, fuck off.
I’m actually here for the Carmelo Anthony erasure…he doesn’t really deserve to be remembered.
You would have had to give me 99 guesses for me to get Carmelo’s Nuggets jersey number right. I barely remember him playing there.