Allen Iverson retired Wednesday after the New York Knicks refused to offer him a contract, and soon thereafter Carmelo Anthony phoned the guard to talk about his odd predicament.
He found out his good friend, with whom he played for a little more than two seasons in Denver, was mostly at peace with the decision.
“It’s a tough situation for him, but it seems he’s happy where he’s at right now, rather than deal with what team he’s going to play for or starting or how many minutes he’s going to get or stuff like that,” Anthony said. “He said he’s happy where he’s at right now.”
Unlike former Georgetown coach John Thompson and Charlotte Bobcats coach Larry Brown, Anthony said he didn’t try to talk Iverson out of retiring and has no plans to do so.
“Nah. I always try to put myself in the other person’s shoes to see what they’re going through at that point in time,” Anthony said. “He broke down and told me how he really felt about the situation, so right now that’s what’s best for him.”
Iverson, a surefire Hall of Famer, has more than 24,000 points in his career. He scored 3,461 of those points with the Nuggets, averaging 25.6 during his time here.
“It’s a messed up way to go out,” Anthony said. “It’s not like he wanted to do it. He was almost forced to do it. Just two years ago, he averaged 27 when he was with us. We won 50 games in the regular season with him. I don’t see how he can lose his game in a year and a half. He’s been doing it for a long time.”
Knicks clearing cap space.
It’s been well-documented the Knicks have cleared cap space, and would like to clear even more, for the 2010 free- agency period when big-ticket players like LeBron James will be available.
Nuggets coach George Karl is skeptical of lose-now-and- clear-space-for-the-future plans.
“It’s funny to me because the history of the game that I don’t understand, that I don’t think has a lot of success to it, is going to the bottom and trying to sign a great free agent,” Karl said. “Because I think it’s a lack of respect to coaches. When you go to the bottom, that coach gets fired 90 percent of the time. You throw that coach to the wolves.
“I don’t like the philosophy. I think you strike out as much as you hit home runs with it. I praise (Knicks general manager) Donnie Walsh because I think he knows what’s going on. But the philosophy of what he’s trying to do is difficult to coaching and miserable to coaching.”
Chris Dempsey, The Denver Post
