Adrian Dantley is hitting a postcareer stride and finally starting to get his due for a great NBA career. Last season, the Utah Jazz retired his number. This year, the Nuggets' assistant coach hopes to be elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in his fifth nomination. Dantley talked about that and other things with Denver Post staff writer Chris Dempsey.

Q: You scored more than 23,000 points in your career. Would you dominate the game now like you did then?

A: Oh, I definitely would. I definitely would have some success because now you can't touch a guy facing up on you. When I played, you could use your hands, use your forearms on defense. Now it's more of an emphasis playing defense with your feet. One of my best assets was my first step.

Q: So you'd be blowing by everyone.

A: (Smiles) I think I'd blow by people.

Q: What do you think about the NBA now?

A: I think the NBA in general is in great shape. It's getting a lot of good young players coming along. And it's a talented league. The old-timers, when I talk to them, say the players today are not as fundamental as when they played. But the guys are a lot more athletic.

Q: What does the Hall of Fame mean to you?

A: Every year around this time, and around the last week of March, I start feeling kind of funny, seeing whether they are going to say, "Yea or nay." It's a weird feeling when the guys say sorry you didn't make it, you're eligible for next year. It's a funny feeling when you get that phone call. The last couple of years I haven't even answered my phone.

Q: Art Monk made it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year after eight tries. You consider that a good sign?

A: I know Art from playing with the Redskins. As soon as he made it, a lot of people called me and said that Art made it his eighth time, so there's some hope. But I don't think about it until somebody brings it up. I've been disappointed a lot of times.

Q: You filled in for George Karl once last season and this (season). What's the difference in walking the sideline instead of sitting in the assistant's chair?

A: It's a lot different. I always look at film all the time, but after the (Detroit) game, I couldn't wait to get back home and watch the game. I always critique myself. So I went back, didn't go to bed until about 4 a.m. Wasn't tired though.

Q: So you're 1-1 as a head coach. What's the book on you so far?

A: (Laughs) Just that I'm .500. That's all.

Q: OK. Which is better, shorts then or shorts now?

A: (Smiles) I tell the guys all the time, if I played now I'd still have my shorts high. At least medium. There's no way that I could dribble between my legs with these big pants they wear now. Guys tease me now, the way I wear my shorts when I come to practice. But there's no way I'm going to wear some shorts below my kneecap and hanging below my waistline in the back area.

Q: Who is better, Adrian Dantley or Carmelo Anthony?

A: I always joke with him that I would foul him out if he played against me. He tells me that stuff I did back then wouldn't work against me.

Q: Who is better, Adrian Dantley or Allen Iverson?

A: Be interesting. He's coming up behind me (in career points, 22,314). He's always making his little smart remarks "Yeah, I'm going to catch you." I told him I missed two years of basketball — he wouldn't be anywhere near me if I hadn't done that.

Sitting on a training table about 90 minutes before tipoff, Allen Iverson shouted across the room to take a friendly jab at Nuggets teammate Carmelo Anthony.

"Yo! What'd I do to you in pool? Didn't I beat the hell out of you in pool when we played?" Iverson yells.

And then in a conversational tone: "He can't do nothing with me in pool."

Anthony is lying down, but he's not going to take Iverson's trash talk without a retort.

"I had one ball on the table, yo," he responds, struggling to stifle a grin. "One pool ball."

By now, neither player can contain himself. Both bust out laughing. It's the kind of laughter shared between people who genuinely enjoy hanging out together.

It's the laughter of men who don't share common blood but consider themselves brothers. It's the laughter of kindred spirits who seemed destined to one day play alongside one another.

"He's taller and I'm more handsome than he is," Iverson said. "Other than that, we've got a lot of similarities."

Anthony, a 6-foot-8, 230-pound forward, and Iverson, a 6-0, 165-pound point guard, wear their hair in cornrows. Both prefer to wear a headband in practice and in games. Both wear an arm sleeve that is part protection, part fashion statement. Both are inked to the bone with tattoos that reflect their beliefs and honor their family.

"Brothers from another mother," Anthony said. "Of course everybody's going to compare us with the tattoos and the headbands and the arm sleeve and stuff like that. They can. They can keep comparing us. It's not a bad thing."

Melo and A.I. will add another common bond Sunday (6 p.m., TNT) in New Orleans when they take the court as starters for the Western Conference All-Star team.

Both made the team a year ago, Iverson as a reserve and Anthony as an injury replacement, but a sprained ankle prevented Iverson from playing in the game in Las Vegas.

Twelve months later, both are relatively healthy - perpetual bumps and bruises also seem to be shared - and they will be the first Nuggets teammates to start in the All-Star Game since Alex English and Fat Lever in 1988.

"This will be special," Iverson said. "I hope the Nuggets people and everybody get our photographs with me and him in the backcourt or on a play or something like that so we can have it for our clips.

Said Anthony: "It's going to be fun. Hopefully, no double-teams, nothing like that. We're going to make the best out of it."

It promises to be a moment nearly 15 years in the making.

Watching from afar

Anthony was a 10-year-old kid surviving the rough streets of West Baltimore when a cocksure teenager out of Hampton, Va., started tearing up the Big East Conference as a freshman at Georgetown.

Because of neighborhood connections, Anthony was a St. John's fan, but he couldn't help but be impressed with Iverson, a cat-quick guard who seemed to defy the laws of physics while slicing to the basket for easy layups or leaning jump shots.

"I was just a fan for the simple fact that nobody ever had faith in him with his game," Anthony said. "They said his game was different than anybody else's. Really, he came in and changed the whole game of basketball.

"He was the only guy that was himself, especially at that point in time. He came in and decided, 'I'm going to be myself and I don't care what nobody else thinks.' "

By the time Iverson jumped to the NBA after two years of college, Anthony still was an unknown talent not yet out of junior high, but their paths would cross in just a few years.

Anthony said he was in high school when he first met Iverson, but neither remembers much about the initial encounter. It wasn't until Anthony emerged as a standout at Syracuse that Iverson started to take notice.

"After his freshman season I started to hear about him," Iverson said. "I don't watch college basketball unless Georgetown's playing. That's it. I saw highlights of him. I knew that he could play."

Seven years after Iverson was the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft, Anthony officially became a colleague when the Nuggets took him third overall in 2003.

Their career paths still were parallel, but a convergence was more possible than ever before.

Dynamic Duo unites

Throughout his first three-plus NBA seasons, Anthony constantly drew top defenders such as Bruce Bowen and Ron Artest and encountered double- and triple- teams.

It was a challenge Iverson faced for 10-plus NBA seasons as the first, second and third options for the Philadelphia 76ers.

During their time together on the 2004 U.S. Olympic team, Anthony and Iverson talked about someday playing together. Those conversations were revisited whenever the two crossed paths at All-Star events and during the offseason.

"I always wanted to play with him," Anthony said. "I always wanted to play with A.I. just because our games are a little bit similar. I always wanted to play with somebody who I can really relate to, on the court and off the court."

Both men grew up on street smarts, only to see those loyalties create image problems as pros. Both had their disagreements with former 76ers coach Larry Brown, who, as coach of the Olympic team, benched Anthony during the 2004 Athens Games. Both have breathtaking talent that finally converged when the Nuggets traded for Iverson on Dec. 19, 2006.

That talent has proved complementary. In the 82 games they have played together - Iverson has missed eight because of injury and Anthony has missed 20 because of injury, the birth of his child and suspension - the Nuggets are 49-33.

"Those guys have really done a good job of playing together," said former NBA coach Doug Collins, an analyst for TNT. "Any time you have two guys who give you 50-plus points a night, you've got a chance to beat anybody."

Next step

With two All-Star starters and the reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year in center Marcus Camby, the Nuggets have a chance to make noise in the West.

Validation, though, has proved hard to come by, even with Anthony and Iverson regularly combining for more than 50 points a game.

Four years running, the Nuggets have failed to get out of the first round of the playoffs. Despite Iverson's arrival, 2007 was no different as San Antonio bounced Denver in five games.

Iverson held himself personally responsible for his new team's lack of success. At a locker a few feet away, Anthony refused to let Iverson shoulder the burden alone.

Though painful at the time, it was another subtle bonding experience that brought Iverson and Anthony closer together and reminded them of the one thing they also have in common.

Neither has reached the pinnacle of his sport.

All-Star games and the occasional recreational game of pool are nice, but both still are in search of a championship.lopezaa@RockyMountainNews.com



Generation next

With baggy clothes, oversized diamond earrings and unlimited street cred, Allen Iverson influenced a generation of basketball players that includes teammate Carmelo Anthony, who was 12 years old when Iverson was an NBA rookie.

Now it is Anthony's turn. Iverson said his 10-year-old son Deuce prefers to wear Anthony's No. 15 jersey instead of his dad's No. 3.

"He just loves Melo," Iverson said. "He's going to have a lot of influence on both of my young sons because they're going to have to grow up watching him."

A.I.: Artistic Iverson

Nuggets fans are well aware of Iverson's ability to draw defenders to the basketball. Not so well-known is his ability to draw defenders on a sketch pad.

"He's a crazy artist," Anthony said. "He tries to sketch everybody. He's one of those freelance drawers. He's real good."

Iverson said he discovered a knack for sketch art when he was in the second or third grade and he has cultivated it through the years by drawing caricatures of teammates, friends and family.

"I don't know how many people know, but it's something I've been doing all my life," he said. "It's something I enjoy doing in my spare time."



Match play

Because Carmelo Anthony, right, represents Nike and Allen Iverson is a Reebok man, they don't quite match head to toe. From the waist up, though, they could be considered fashion twins. Both recently talked about why they wear their hair in cornrows, sport headbands and don an arm sleeve.

* HAIRSTYLE

Anthony: My dad always had cornrows growing up. I started wearing cornrows when I was about 2 years old. My mother always used to cut my hair and I'd grow it back and (she would) cut it and (I'd) grow it back. Once I got out of high school, I decided I was going to keep it.

Iverson: I think it was my rookie season. When I used to go on the road all the time, guys used to push my hairline back and mess my hair up. I was like, I'll just get cornrows, get 'em braided and I don't have to deal with that no more.

* HEADBAND

Iverson: I don't know what made me start wearing the headband. I didn't start wearing a headband until . . . it was a while after I had been in the league. Just one day (I put it on) and I just kept doing it.

Anthony: Even when I didn't wear a headband, I always wore a cutoff sleeve off the shirt. I'd cut the sleeve off and make it into a headband. I always wore a handkerchief wrapped around me. I always had something. Just comfort.

* ARM SLEEVE

Iverson: That's when I got surgery on my elbow (in 2001). I had elbow problems all through college, and then I had a bursa sac (injury) and I used to have it there to calm it down. I just kept it when I got used to it.

Anthony: I busted my bursa sac (in 2005). That's why I started wearing it. I still do. My elbow's still messed up.



Before and after

Statistics for Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson before and after the Nuggets acquired Iverson on Dec. 19, 2006:

* ANTHONY

BeforeAfter

Games25990

Scoring average23.626.9

Rebounding average5.66.8

Assists average2.83.5

Field-goal percentage45.446.7

30-plus points games6134

* IVERSON

BeforeAfter

Games697102

Scoring average28.125.7

Rebounding average3.93.0

Assists average6.17.3

Field-goal percentage42.144.8

30-plus points games28630

Carmelo Scores Career-Best 49



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DENVER (AP) -- Allen Iverson barely broke a sweat and he thanked Carmelo Anthony for that.

"I think that might be the easiest game I ever played in my career. I was out there watching," Iverson hollered across the locker room after Anthony scored a career-high 49 points to lead the Denver Nuggets past the Washington Wizards 111-100 Friday night.

With Anthony swishing shots from all over the court, Iverson took just nine shots himself, making seven of them.

"I was out there watching," gushed Iverson, who will join Melo as an All-Star starter in New Orleans later this month.

Anthony made 19 of 25 shots from the floor and sank all eight of his free throws in the third-highest individual scoring game in the NBA this season.

"Come on, man," Marcus Camby chided mockingly. "He's a ball hog."

Anthony, playing on a still puffy left ankle that had recently forced him to miss five games, made all three of his 3-pointers, including one with Dominic McGuire in his face in the final minute that gave him 47 points, two more than his previous career high set against Philadelphia on Dec. 27, 2005.

"Actually I was going to drive to the basket and try to get a foul but it felt so good, the rhythm felt good," Anthony said.

After he sank two free throws with 49 seconds left, Anthony was double- and triple-teamed in the final minute.

"I was definitely surprised by that. What for? Just to stop him from getting 50? I wanted to be a part of him scoring 50 points," Iverson said. "I was happy for him, just to see him play like that. I never had a teammate score 49 points. This is one of the easiest games I ever played."

Cleveland's LeBron James scored 51 against Memphis in January and Iverson went for 50 in December against the Lakers.

Anthony laughed at the sudden attention he was getting after roaming free most of the night.

"It was funny," Anthony said. "But my team probably would have done the same thing if somebody was going for 50. I would probably have told my teammates to double-team and do something like that, too."

Wizards coach Eddie Jordan wasn't laughing.

He was steamed that 'Melo came back in the game even though the Nuggets were only ahead 94-84 when Anthony checked back in with just under six minutes left.

"I thought it was very classless to close the game out," Jordan said. "I have my opinion. I can what I want to say. That's what I thought it was."

Anthony shrugged off the coach's criticism.

"We weren't trying to embarrass nobody out there. We're trying to win the basketball game and that's what we did tonight," Anthony said. "I don't think it was classless. He can go ahead and say it, but I don't think so."

Nuggets coach George Karl didn't either.

"I don't think we embarrassed anybody or tried to insult anybody. We played the game with our starters in the game. They decided to double-team him in the end and I thought our guys did the right thing and just let it go," Karl said.

Anthony became the third Nuggets player to top 40 points in a game this season. Linas Kleiza scored a career-high 41 at Utah on Jan. 17.

Anthony had scored 29 by the time the Nuggets took a 56-47 lead into the locker room at halftime. Through three quarters he had 40 points on 16-of-20 shooting, surpassing his season high of 37 set against Houston on Dec. 20.

Iverson added 18 points and Kenyon Martin 16, including many of the Nuggets' 10 dunks. The Wizards, playing in their gaudy gold alternate jerseys, got 21 points from Antawn Jamison and 19 from Nick Young.

Were it a closer game, Camby might have had a shot at his fourth career triple-double and second one this season. He had six points, eight assists and 14 boards through three quarters and added just three rebounds in limited playing time in the fourth quarter.

With Anthony and Camby on the bench, the Wizards trimmed their deficit in the second half, pulling to 94-84 on Young's jumper, forcing Karl to send Anthony back in with 5:46 left.

And Anthony went right to work scoring some more.

"I haven't been in that zone in a long, long time," Anthony said. "When I'm like that, I feel that anything I throw up is going to go in."

Melo will return to action on Saturday

DENVER (AP) Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson are the most prolific scoring duo in the league this season.

So, it's only fitting the tandem is headed to the All-Star game as a package deal. Anthony and Iverson were named starters to the Western Conference All-Star team on Thursday night.

Denver hasn't had two starters on the squad since Alex English and Fat Lever were both named to the team in 1988.

Iverson is third in the league in scoring, averaging 27 points a game. Anthony is right behind him at fourth with a 25.5-point average.

Together, they form the most potent tandem in the league, averaging a combined 52.5 points. The only other duo that's close is New Jersey's Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter, who are averaging a combined 44.6 points.

Anthony led all forwards in the Western Conference with 1,723,701 votes. Iverson made a late surge to take the second guard spot away from Houston's Tracy McGrady. Iverson finished with 1,203,152 votes.

San Antonio forward Tim Duncan, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant and Houston center Yao Ming round out the Western Conference starters for the game on Feb. 17 in New Orleans, La.

Iverson will be making his ninth All-Star appearance. He's also a two-time All-Star Game MVP, winning the honor in 2001 and 2005. He's averaged 17.3 points in seven All-Star appearances. Iverson was selected last season but sat out due to an injury.

''It's a good feeling,'' Iverson said of being selected to the team. ''I think it's a tribute to my teammates and coaching staff because without those guys none of that would be possible.''

Anthony is headed to his second straight All-Star game. He scored 20 points in 25 minutes in his first All-Star appearance last season in Las Vegas.

''It feels like I'm over the hump now and people are starting to realize the hard work that I put in to get here,'' said Anthony, who currently holds the longest active double-figure scoring streak in the NBA at 170 games. ''It's all because of the fans. They're obviously liking what they've been seeing out of me and the production that I'm giving out there on the court this season. It's finally starting to pay off.''

The 23-year-old forward missed his first game of the season Wednesday night with a sprained left ankle. Anthony came down on the foot of Bryant in Monday's loss to the Lakers, and is listed as day-to-day.

''Melo is a great player,'' Kenyon Martin said Wednesday after the Nuggets' 107-100 win over Atlanta. ''Everybody has to step up.''

Now, the lobbying begins. Nuggets coach George Karl is hoping to get center Marcus Camby a spot on the team as a reserve, which is decided by a coach's vote. Karl would gladly place calls to rival coaches to plead his case on why Camby should make the team.

Camby is first in the league in blocked shots (3.92) and second in rebounding (14.4).

''I'd be interested to see a coach that doesn't pick him,'' Karl said Wednesday. ''Marcus has to get a lot of attention.''

(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. In the interest of timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain occasional typographical errors. )

LOS ANGELES — When it was over, George and Coby Karl met in front of the Denver bench and hugged, the culmination of a dream — once marred by doubters and cancer — come true.

In the Lakers' 116-99 victory against the Nuggets (24-16) at the Staples Center on Monday night, Coby Karl played the final 3:23 for Los Angeles, only the third time in NBA history a father coached against his son.

During the hug, "I asked him if he was upset we beat him so bad," Coby Karl said with a smile.

It was a thrilling moment for Denver coach Karl on a night filled with frustration. Not only did the Nuggets lose an important game, but all-star forward Carmelo Anthony suffered a sprained left ankle.

With 5:51 left in the

second quarter, Anthony attempted a jump shot over Kobe Bryant, and when Anthony's feet hit the ground, his left foot landed on Bryant's foot. Anthony fell to the floor like a boxer.

He squirmed and sprawled while the Nuggets grimaced and grunted. Trainer Jim Gillen hustled to the floor and attended to the fallen star. Anthony had sprained his left ankle, but X-rays came back negative.

Anthony didn't return to the game and will be re-evaluated today in Denver. But, it seems, it could have been a lot worse.

Coach Karl said it was a "substantial sprain," but he's hopeful Anthony can return this weekend.

"It's hurting real bad," Anthony said from the locker room. "I'm struggling trying to put this sock on. But I'll get rehab and see how it feels."

With 2:37 left, after Denver's Linas Kleiza was called for a technical foul, Coby Karl was chosen to shoot the free throw, which he made in front of the Denver bench. It was the only point for the Lakers reserve and cancer survivor. He later airballed a 3-point attempt.

Thus the Karls joined a couple of other promiment NBA families. Butch van Breda Kolff of the New Orleans Jazz coached against his son, Jan, of the New York Nets in one game on Nov. 9, 1976. And Mike Dunleavy Sr. coaches against his son, Mike Jr., twice a season when dad's Clippers face son's Pacers.

Denver was down by as many as 17 in the first half and trailed by 10 at the half, but clawed back in the third, and when Marcus Camby unleashed a baseline, backward two-handed dunk, Denver tied the game at 77.

Then came a late-quarter Los Angeles surge. The Lakers (27-12) made four straight 3-pointers, three coming from the hot hand of Derek Fisher, and the Lakers entered the fourth up 91-82.

Bryant, second in the NBA at 27.7 points per game, didn't even attempt a field goal until the 7:58 mark in the second quarter. But at that point, the Lakers led 49-37. Bryant made that shot, a fadeaway baseline jumper, and he ended up the night with 17 points.

But his scoring efforts were trumped by those of Fisher. The veteran guard averages 12.5 points per game, but his craftiness against Denver's defense led to a 28-point output. That's one off a career high.

On Sunday night, George and Coby Karl had dinner with eight friends. It was cherished bonding time, though George Karl admitted with a smile, "He's a Laker, and it's very obvious he loves the Lakers team. And I'm tired of hearing the stories about the Lakers."

Well, now Coby has at least one Lakers story that George won't mind hearing.