Carmelo Anthony sounds off on 'petty maneuver' by Denver Nuggets

Carmelo Anthony spent seven seasons playing for the Denver Nuggets from 2003-2010. During his time with the team, he helped lead them to a Western Conference Finals appearance and was selected to several All-Star teams.

Anthony wound up being traded to the New York Knicks to end his tenure with Denver.

Several years after his departure, the Nuggets gave away Anthony's No. 15 to rookie center Nikola Jokic. Of course, Jokic has gone on to build quite the legacy for himself in Denver and is now the best player to ever wear the number in the Mile-High City.

Carmelo Anthony unhappy with Denver Nuggets' decision to assign Nikola Jokic No. 15

Anthony recently discussed the team's decision to reassign his number after he left the organization, calling it a "petty maneuver."

“It was a petty maneuver. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, we got numbers to choose from.’ It was like, ‘Here, you got 15.’ And y’all put Jokic in the middle of that. He don’t know what the fu-k going on.”

Anthony went on to add that he feels like Jokic should've worn the number toh

“He could’ve been like, ‘I want to wear 15.’ Or ’15 is here, I want to wear 15. Oh, that’s Melo’s number.’ You know what I mean?” Anthony said on his ‘7PM in Brooklyn’ podcast. “Like just pay homage. I don’t know. He could’ve worn it because he wanted to pay homage.

He concluded by hypothesizing that the Nuggets had given the number away to spite him for wanting to leave the team.

“But what I believe is that they gave him 15 to try to erase what I did. I used to think about it. I don’t think about this sh-t no more, though. Because what’s meant to be is meant to be.”