Denver Nuggets Owner Josh Kroenke Addresses Carmelo Anthony's Comments on Jokic Wearing #15
00:00:00.000 | There's a lot of talk about his number, number 15, and you know, him and Carmelo Anthony.
00:00:06.480 | I don't even know the whole story of what came out, but yeah, talk a little bit about
00:00:11.420 | your thoughts on that whole situation.
00:00:13.180 | Yeah, that's a funny one.
00:00:14.180 | I saw Melo was on something fairly recently and, you know, my first, it's interesting
00:00:20.580 | to think back because my first meeting when I was put in charge of the Nuggets in the
00:00:24.040 | summer of 2010 was to fly to Baltimore and sit in a hotel room where it was he, his agent,
00:00:31.600 | and one other guy that worked with him, and he asked to be traded.
00:00:35.320 | And they gave us two teams, and I put that in my back pocket, went back to Denver.
00:00:41.840 | I was kind of, our front office was in flux at the time, and then I wound up hiring a
00:00:47.720 | guy named Masai Ujiri, now runs the Toronto Raptors, and then he and I, and another person
00:00:53.720 | named Pete D'Alessandro worked on that trade for about six months.
00:00:57.760 | And so we got through the trade, and you know, you don't really think about much.
00:01:05.120 | You know, we had Allen Iverson for a number of years, and Ty Lawson wore number three.
00:01:12.600 | And so, you know, it's not anything that really ever crossed our mind.
00:01:17.060 | And so I was very surprised to hear Carmelo say that the other day because it wasn't something
00:01:21.240 | that ever crossed my mind.
00:01:22.240 | I think Nicola has worn number 15 his entire career, even when he was over in Europe.
00:01:29.800 | And so, you know, I mean, it wasn't something that really crossed our mind.
00:01:33.440 | And, you know, to have Nicola, I think, ascend to the level that he's at, maybe that might
00:01:38.320 | get under somebody's skin, I guess, perhaps, but I don't know.
00:01:41.400 | I think Nicola's always worn 15.
00:01:43.400 | It was never anything that we ever thought about, and, you know, I'm just happy that
00:01:47.720 | Nicola's on our team.
00:01:50.560 | What specifically was Melo upset about?
00:01:52.520 | Was it that someone else got to wear his number, his number didn't get retired?
00:01:56.480 | I'm not 100% sure.
00:01:58.680 | I think, you know, Melo, he had an unbelievable career with us, and he really put the Nuggets
00:02:02.840 | back on the map in a really positive way.
00:02:05.240 | I think that there was a, you know, it's interesting when a player wants to be traded from a team,
00:02:13.520 | and, you know, that creates certain feelings, and it took a while for our fan base in Denver
00:02:19.480 | to get over that as well.
00:02:22.820 | It was an interesting scenario because that whole saga really started the summer before,
00:02:28.840 | the summer of 2010.
00:02:31.440 | That was when LeBron had left Miami, or excuse me, left Cleveland to go to Miami, and so
00:02:36.160 | player empowerment and movement was really kind of just starting to reach its peak, and
00:02:42.280 | I think that's great.
00:02:43.280 | I think you guys have one shot at your careers.
00:02:45.200 | You know, we're kind of custodians of that career.
00:02:47.680 | We obviously have our own goals in trying to build our teams, but I always respect if
00:02:52.080 | somebody wants to go do something else, but for the city of Denver, I think they took
00:02:57.160 | it very personally, and that took a little time for the city to get over, and, you know,
00:03:03.080 | I'm sure Melo didn't like being booed for the first few times he came back because he
00:03:06.320 | did.
00:03:07.320 | He worked his butt off for the city, and we had a great run in there.
00:03:09.680 | We made the Western Conference Finals in 2009.
00:03:11.360 | That was the only time we made it out of the first round, but, you know, I think over time
00:03:17.320 | hopefully the feelings dissipate.
00:03:18.680 | I think, you know, if he was to come back to Denver, I think he'd probably get a different
00:03:22.080 | reception these days, but from a personal level, there was never any animosity or anything
00:03:27.680 | kind of on our thinking about Nicola's number because it was just the number that he wanted
00:03:34.480 | to wear and the number that he's worn forever.
00:03:36.520 | I think that it's been interesting to see his ascension to where he is, but, you know,
00:03:41.360 | to think that, for anyone to think that we gave a second-round pick number 15 and knowing
00:03:48.280 | that it would someday turn into this, I think that's a pretty wild statement.