Nuggets Send Message to 14-Year Veteran After Personal News

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Matt John | Last updated Aug 18, 2025 6:43 PM ET

For the Denver Nuggets, there was a four-and-a-half-year gap between the end of the Carmelo Anthony era and the beginning of the Nikola Jokic era. Their best player during that stretch was none other than Danilo Gallinari.

Gallinari may not have made any All-Star teams, but he proved himself to be an excellent scorer, averaging as many as 19.5 points per game during his first season with Jokic - the 2015-16 season. In fact, at one point, the Nuggets won 57 games when Gallinari was leading the way during the 2012-13 season, but he tore his ACL just before the playoffs started.

After his time with the Nuggets ended in 2017, Gallinari bounced around between the Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons, and Milwaukee Bucks until he resumed his career overseas in 2024.

Nuggets Pay Tribute to Gallinari After Winning Puerto Rico Title

Gallinari has resumed his professional basketball career overseas, playing in the Puerto Rican Basketball League, Baloncesto Superior Nacional. There, he won a league title with his team, Vaqueros de Bayomon, winning MVP in the process, per the team's official X account. He also won with fellow Nuggets alum JaVale McGee. The Nuggets shouted out Gallinari after winning.

Six days after Gallinari won the title in Puerto Rico, the Nuggets paid tribute to him via their official X account. They shared a montage of his best highlights with the team, along with the caption "Giving Gallo his flowers" with a clapping emoji.

Giving Gallo his flowers pic.twitter.com/QkS9hWmPAc
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) August 17, 2025

Gallinari was one of the pieces sent back to Denver in the Carmelo Anthony trade, and played for the team from 2011 to 2017.

In his last NBA season, where he split time between the Wizards, Pistons, and Bucks, Gallinari averaged 5.7 points while shooting 43.7% from the field and 32.3% from three. He was also coming off his second ACL tear in the same knee. It was clear by then that he was past his prime in the NBA. However, his time as a professional basketball player was far from over.

In his first season playing for Vanqueros de Bayomon, Gallinari averaged 19.3 points, six rebounds, and 2.7 assists while shooting 49.7% from inside the arc and 38.2% from outside the arc, per Latin Basket.

In their title-winning game, he put up a statline of 28 points while shooting four-for-10 from the field to go with six rebounds and four assists. Even if Gallinari's NBA career is over now, he still has plenty of good basketball left to play.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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