Carmelo Anthony clarifies Nuggets jersey number spat: ‘Not about Jokic’

It makes sense why Melo would have this opinion. He’s regarded as one of the best players in Nuggets’ franchise history. Although he never did bring a championship to the city, Carmelo Anthony was a true superstar for this organization. At the very least, you’d think Anthony’s jersey could be retired up in the rafters one day.

But that’s a bit difficult now that Nikola Jokic looks like a future Hall of Famer. Regardless, in the moment the Nuggets gave the No. 15 jersey to other players, Carmelo Anthony believes the organization was in the wrong to do so. Melo explained his reasoning even further here.

“Just to stay on topic, it wasn’t about Jokic, Jokic came later, I was just saying the organization had an opportunity to say ‘Hold up, he might come back, you never know.’ I never burnt no bridges there so why would you burn the bridge? …I’m speaking on that point in time in my life and career…Like damn, I was f***** up to leave. So no to everybody that thinks that I’m bitter, no, I’m at peace. But now I get a chance to speak on things that y’all was speaking on for me for 21 years. So now I’m gonna speak my truth. I can only speak on things I’ve been through, things I’ve experienced, things that I’ve seen. Not what I’ve heard… If you don’t like that, ya’ll don’t like that. I didn’t say anything disrespectful, I didn’t say anything off the line. I said Jokic probably didn’t know what was going on at that time. Again, he was the 40-something pick…That makes me stand on what I’m saying even more. You gave someone who was the 41st pick after you already gave it to somebody else so that tells me 15 is no longer connected with Melo…It’s just the mentality of the organization at that point in time.”