Grading The Week: Carmelo Anthony’s sour grapes over Nikola Jokic wearing No. 15 more “petty” than anything Nuggets did to him

Let it go, ‘Melo. The grudge. The burr in your backside. The history. The No. 15. the number 15. First off, belated Happy New Year! The usual peanut gallery inside the Grading The Week offices took a week or so off to get the holidays out of our system, then another unplanned week or so to get a family spread dose of mild coronavirus, the Christmas gift nobody wanted, out of our respective lungs.

And no sooner were the gang of idiots breathing easier when somebody sent over a clip from former Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony’s podcast this past Thursday with The Kid Mero, “7PM in Brooklyn.” “You had to feel a (certain) way when (the Nuggets) gave (Nikola) Jokic that 15?” The Kid Mero asked of Anthony, referring to his old Nuggets number and the one now worn by the greatest player in franchise history.

“Because that’s ‘Melo(‘s number 15).” Melo dropped his shades and gave a look. “Hell, yeah … what I believe is that (the Nuggets) gave him 15 to erase what I did,” Anthony replied. Oh, doctor. Can we go back to COVID? A lot to unpack here. But before we do, we’ll let Anthony, who wore 15 with the Nuggets from 2003 2011, continue.

“Did you feel it was a petty maneuver (by the Nuggets)?” The Kid Mero asked. “It was a petty maneuver,” ‘Melo replied. “It wasn’t like, ‘You’ve got numbers to choose from.’ … it’s like, ‘Here, you got 15.’ And ya’ll put Jokic in the middle of that. He (doesn’t know) what the (expletive is) goin’ on.” Couple things.

For one, this whole “squatter’s rights” sword cuts both ways, my friend. While you were flying high for the Knicks, Jokic was wearing the No. 15 as a youth basketball player in Serbia. That relationship, which Anthony had nothing to do with, goes back more than a decade. For another, Jokic wasn’t the first guy to get handed ‘Melo’s old 15 once he’d fulfilled his wish to be traded out of town.

That honor goes to power forward Anthony Rudolph, a German born big man who wore it from 2012 2014. The 6 foot 10 Rudolph wound up making 82 appearances for the Nuggets as the next “No. 15,” started five games, averaged 10.4 minutes and 4.3 points for Denver, and most certainly did not erase — or even remotely threaten — Anthony’s legacy in the Mile High City, a legacy that included four All Star Game appearances in eight seasons.

We’ll give ‘Melo this much: Yes, he was one of the top five or six players in team history, and that hasn’t changed some 13 years after he left town. Yes, it’s more than a bit random that two post players inherited his old Nuggs number. And yes, it’s even more random that one of them, a guy few in Denver had even heard of in 2011, blossomed into a two time NBA MVP and Finals MVP as the centerpiece of the franchise’s first ever league championship.

But hoops is a funny game like that. And by throwing shade this week, Anthony wound up looking a heck of a lot more petty than the Nuggets ever did. Hey, airing your dirty laundry over laundry was probably cathartic, ‘Melo. Still, if you’re trying to see your name in the rafters at Ball Arena forever more, it’s hard to see what comes off as a bad case of sour grapes smoothing a path.

The Nuggs are going to retire a 15 one day. Frankly, they should retire two. But moments like these don’t twist arms as much as they twist old narratives. And not for the better..