Wednesday night marked the first game for Carmelo Anthony in Denver since being traded from the Nuggets. The Denver Nuggets traded Anthony for a host of players and draft picks to the New York Knicks back in 2011. When it comes to players being traded, sometimes you have players that become a cancer in a locker room or bring more drama to a team than a daytime soap opera. However in Melo’s case, he and the Nuggets were in mutual agreement that it was time to move on. Carmelo had always wanted to come back home and play in the city where he grew up, the one, the only, New York City. At the same time, the Denver Nuggets found a way to get numerous promising young players and future draft picks in return for Anthony. The trade turned out to be a win-win situation. With that being said, I have never been more embarrassed for an entire fan base than I was for the IGNORANT Denver Nuggets fans that were in attendance Wednesday night. From the second they introduced Carmelo Anthony to the starting lineup, they booed him. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they booed him every single time he touched the ball. To that I say, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!? And to make matters even worse, when Melo left the game in the 3rd quarter due to a banged up knee, the fans felt it was necessary to chant, “Where is Melo?” Really? Does that make you feel better? This is not like Lebron James’ situation, where he left his team high and dry and they reverted back to the horrible team they were prior to his arrival. It is not like Melo left the city he grew up in to chase the money. NO, he wanted to come home and play basketball in the greatest arena on earth. Now I know that fans aren’t always as smart as they let on, but I thought they were going to get this one right. While everyone was wondering what kind of reception Melo would get from the crowd, I kept saying they have to cheer him. For all he did for this team, they’d be the dumbest fans in all the world to boo him. Well, if the shoe fits……. So clearly, the fans that filled the Nuggets arena are classless and don’t understand anything about the NBA. They clearly can’t look at Carmelo’s career as a Denver Nugget objectively and say, man he was great, he took us to the playoffs literally every year he played here (including his rookie season). Say what you want about Carmelo Anthony’s game. Tell me he’s not good enough to win a championship. Tell me his style of play is not conducive to the “team” mentality. You can even tell me he doesn’t have the work ethic of a Lebron James or a Michael Jordan. But don’t tell me he didn’t give the Denver Nuggets everything he had for 7+ seasons. Don’t tell me the Nuggets would have been a playoff team 7 years in a row without him. And, you definitely can’t tell me that he wasn’t the reason you came out to the arena to watch the team every night. So to all the Denver Nuggets fans who booed and heckled Carmelo Anthony, I say go back to school because you obviously don’t have any class.
As for the game, it was pathetic. Man I get tired of using that word. As I stated earlier, Carmelo Anthony left the game in the 3rd quarter due to his knee acting up again. Carmelo Anthony is clearly not 100%, and they need to rest him so he’s healthy for the playoffs. If a player is going to suit up, they need to be able to give it their all, every night. And right now, he can’t do that. Will having his knee drained solve all of his problems? I don’t know, but I sure hope it does. A very scary moment came in the 2nd quarter when Tyson Chandler went down after banging knees with Corey Brewer. As of now the Knicks are calling it a knee contusion. When asked about it after the game, Chandler said it shouldn’t be a problem and hopefully we’ll see him in uniform Thursday night. Thursday night they continue their tough road trip against the Portland Trailblazers, and it would serve the Knicks well to have Chandler in there to slow down LaMarcus Aldridge (he’s pretty good). If you haven’t figured it out by now the Knicks got blown out for the second straight game. They lost the game 117-94. While Melo and Chandler left the game and Raymond Felton’s woes continued, there was one positive to be taken away from Wednesday nights shellacking. Iman Shumpert showed us that he can actually score the basketball. Since always, I’ve been preaching that he is wildly underrated on the offensive end and once his knee is back to 100%, he will show the world that he can shoot. Last night was a prime example of that. Shumpert scored 20 points on 8 of 10 shooting from the field (which included going 4 for 5 from 3-point range). So being the glass half full guy that I am (haha), let us take away only the positive (yes that’s positive in the singular form because there was only one) from last night’s game. Other than that last night’s game was a complete and total disaster, and I’m not sure it can get any worse for the New York Knicks. They need to pick off 1 or 2 of the 3 games remaining on this road trip and crawl their way back to New York with some confidence. Luckily for them, the Utah Jazz are playing like the worst team in the galaxy right now, and that is where they finish their road trip. But first, they will be in Portland Thursday night to take on the Blazers. You can find that game on TNT at 10:30 P.M. Personally, I can’t wait for them to finish this road trip so I can start going to bed at a reasonable time. But hey, it’s not all about me now is it?
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Dave Talks Sports 