Former NBA star Chauncey Billups feels that Carmelo Anthony’s No. 15 jersey with the Denver Nuggets should have already been retired because of how much he meant to the franchise.
“They should have retired Melo’s jersey the year after he retired,” Billups told Andscape’s Marc J. Spears. “Once he retired, I said, ‘All right, cool. He’s done now. He won’t play another game. It is time.’ And so, to me, it is already too late. That should have been the first order of business in terms of retiring Melo’s jersey just because I know exactly what he meant to the organization.”
“Obviously, there are so many guys that came before us that were great players. And obviously, there was Joker (Jokic) that came after all of us. But Melo is one of the best players in the history of the franchise,” he added.
It was recently confirmed that Anthony is to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. The former Denver Nuggets forward is considered one of the greatest scorers in modern NBA history, having averaged 22.5 points per game in his professional career.
Denver Nuggets blasted for “wasting” Nikola Jokic’s prime years
Meanwhile, former NBA star Charles Barkley recently blasted the Denver Nuggets for not maximizing Nikola Jokic’s supporting cast despite retooling their roster this offseason.
“The problem they have now is that they’re playing catch-up,” Barkley said on the Bill Simmons podcast. “And I always tell people this: You never catch up. It might be too late because they’re not head and shoulders, the best starting five. They got rid of their two best players off the bench when they won the championship.”
“Man, if you got a chance to win, you better go for it. And they really wasted the Joker over the last couple of years. The problem they got now is they’re not better than Oklahoma City. And I’m sure they’re not better than the Rockets,” he continued.
