No team in NBA history has retired the number for two different players but George Karl wants the Nuggets to make a special exception for No. 15. As the iconic number for Carmelo Anthony and now Nikola Jokic, the former Nuggets coach says the franchise should consider honoring both players by including both of their names in the rafters.
“Two number 15 up there wouldn’t bother me a bit,” said Karl, via Brandon ‘Scop B’ Robinson. “I think they are both going to be retired some time. I think he deserves to be retired. He took a team that was at the bottom and now they’re at the top and it all started with the drafting of Carmelo Anthony.”
Carmelo Anthony deserves to have his Nuggets 15 retired by Denver and so does Nikola Jokic said George Karl while appearing on Scoop B Radio.
"TWO number #15 up there wouldn’t bother me a bit."
"I think they are both going to be retired sometime."@CoachKarl22 on… https://t.co/Fnvh5dRjkA pic.twitter.com/ydqsW8gLv9
— 👑 Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson (@ScoopB) May 2, 2024
The conversation around who should get their No. 15 jersey retired by the Nuggets is not a new one, but Nikola Jokic’s continued dominance is making it harder and harder to make a case against him. In just eight years with the franchise, he brought them their first-ever NBA championship while averaging 26.4 points, 12.4 rebounds, and 9.0 assists per game on 58.3% shooting.
As a 6x All-Star, 2x MVP, and 5x All-NBA player, Jokic is a sure-fire Hall of Famer and he’s already moving up the ranks as one of the greatest Nuggets players ever. Of course, Carmelo Anthony never reached nearly the same heights as Jokic and he’s taken the Nuggets further than anyone else before.
But it was Melo where the foundation was laid for the Nuggets’ success and it was his tenure there that resulted in some of the franchise’s best seasons. While he was never able to win a championship with the Nuggets, he did ultimately leave behind a legacy that should be celebrated, and George Karl, who coached Anthony on the Nuggets, would know more than anyone the kind of compact he had on the franchise.
Carmelo Says The Nuggets Gave Away His Number Out Of “Spite”
While Jokic is almost guaranteed to have his jersey retired, the situation isn’t as simple with Carmelo. Many were surprised when the Nuggets let Jokic wear 15 after being drafted in 2014 and Melo says they only did it out of spite.
According to the former Nuggets swingman, they wanted to erase his legacy by letting Jokic completely overshadow his career. And while Jokic’s play has indeed minimized Anthony’s legacy, it’s hard to believe they planned this from the start.
Jokic was a second-round pick that year and nobody had a clue how good he would become. As team owner/governor Nuggets Josh Kroenke later pointed out, giving Jokic 15 was just something he never thought about and Jokic’s ascension into one of the greatest players ever was something that not even Jokic himself could have predicted.
Had Carmelo not requested a trade in 2009 and forced his way out, he might have had a chance to build a similar legacy with the Nuggets but he never gave himself the chance and now he’ll have to live with the consequences.
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