Carmelo Anthony instantly changed the Nuggets’ fortunes upon his arrival in 2003. As he leaves Denver for the New York Knicks, he is changing the team’s fortunes again, but with the haul the Nuggets got in return, Denver may have an opportunity to rebound in short order.
Nuggets fans can only hope the franchise doesn’t sink to the level it was at when Melo dropped into their lap with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2003 draft.
The Nuggets won just 17 games in the season prior to Melo’s arrival. With Melo, the Nuggets won no fewer than 43 games and made the playoffs every season.
Anthony brought star power, street cred, the Jordan brand and a sweet stroke.
To many, he is the greatest player in Nuggets’ history.
Nationally, Melo gave the Nuggets widespread appeal, something the franchise has rarely enjoyed in its checkered history. He brought his winning smile and name recognition from Syracuse, where he helped the Orangemen win the 2003 NCAA title as a freshman. Almost immediately, Melo became a prime-time attraction, single-handedly getting the Nuggets appearances on late-night TNT games. Nuggets jerseys were being worn coast-to-coast and worldwide.
In short, the Nuggets became relevant again.
And yet Melo’s stay in Denver at times was strained, a construct of Anthony’s own actions — the head scratching, if not planned, appearance in the controversial “Stop Snitching” DVD in 2006, a year that also included his role in a brawl at New York, which resulted in a 15-game suspension. There was a DUI in 2008 and a one-game suspension by the team for refusing to come out of a game in 2009.
Each incident led to an apology and a pledge not to make the same mistakes.
“People at 25 aren’t the same people they were at 19 years old,” Anthony told The Denver Post last year. “That’s just natural. You grow up. I don’t want to do the same things that I was doing last year, just like last year I didn’t want to do the same things I was doing the year before.
“There were people in my life years ago, now that I look back on it, I’m going, ‘What did I have them there for?’ You grow up, and you see that.”
There were clashes with a demanding coach, George Karl. There were hints from the Nuggets over a two- year span that he might be traded.
It’s all about winning Early in his career, there was Melo’s reluctance to get in his best shape for training camp, and, in the end, there was the never-ending debate among Nuggets fans about just how good he was. Yes, he was an offensive force, but why wasn’t he a better rebounder? Or a better defender? And did he really make his teammates that much better, which is the true measure of basketball greatness.
Anthony was widely criticized for the Nuggets’ inability to advance past the first round of the playoffs for five consecutive years. When the Nuggets finally did so, in 2009, it was the newly acquired Chauncey Billups who received much of the credit.
Still, Anthony, up to the end, insisted he was all about winning, and his move out of Denver was about finding a destination that could lead to an NBA championship. He saw the Nuggets as a franchise stripping down, not building up like the Knicks.
“Winning’s all I’ve wanted to do,” he said. “It’s easy to say that, but then if you go out there and not do it, or if you win in the regular season and not in the playoffs, then people will say that you don’t care about winning. But how can you say that? It’s not like I went out there and tried to lose all those games in the playoffs. . . . You start winning games in the playoffs, then people start saying that everything has changed.”
It was time to move on The city watched the young man grow up. He went from cornrows to close-cropped hair; from hoodies and baggy jeans to slick suits and GQ outfits. As he matured, his relationship with Karl steadily improved.
Over time, Karl become one of Anthony’s biggest fans and seemed to hold out hope to the end that he would stay.
“I think we’ve gone through a lot of stuff,” Karl said. “Even though sometimes some stuff is tough, it brings you to communicate better and work together and be together.”
A turning point for Melo’s career was his experience in Beijing at the Olympic Games in 2008. He bonded with his Team USA teammates en route to winning a gold medal, shaking off the frustrations of Team USA’s bronze showing in 2004.
Melo arrived back in Denver following the Olympics with a renewed sense of what it meant to be a pro, and a leader. The result was his best season as a pro, with the Nuggets taking the eventual champion Lakers to six games in a hotly contested Western Conference finals. During that magical season, Anthony enhanced his growing reputation for game-winning shots, becoming the go-go guy with the clock winding down and the game on the line.
Those good feelings carried over into the 2009-10 season. Through the halfway point, Anthony was being touted as a strong contender in the league MVP race. A year ago at this time, the Nuggets were 42-21 and in second place in the Western Conference.
But when Karl had to take a leave of absence to undergo cancer treatment, the team — and the season — soon fell apart.
At season’s end, he shared with The Post that he was going to be closely watching what Nuggets management was doing to get better, or he would think of not signing an extension.
“I don’t want to go backwards,” he said.
The Nuggets offered a three-year, $65 million contract last June. But Anthony let it sit. And today, he leaves, along with a large chapter of Nuggets history.
