In the modern NBA, it’s increasingly rare that a player will spend his entire career with the same team. We are in the era of player empowerment, and the salary cap structure and the way contracts are set up under the CBA gives star players a lot more leverage in determining their futures.
Still, some teams never quite get over losing their franchise star, even a decade later. The Denver Nuggets, for instance, proved that they’re still nurturing a some hard feelings towards Carmelo Anthony for skipping town for the Knicks back in 2010 despite their recent success and bright future ahead
On Friday, the team’s Twitter account posted a graphic asking fans to vote on their favorite Nuggets player of all-time. You may have noticed that Melo is conspicuously absent from that image.
Let’s hear ’em. #MileHighBasketball pic.twitter.com/FxIBS5b6tV
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) October 16, 2020
Plenty of other noticed as well and quickly took them to task for what seems like such a petty oversight, as Melo has a strong case for the best player in franchise history by almost any measure, although Nikola Jokic will likely have something to say about that when all is said and done.
And Melo’s current squad wasn’t about to take that slight lying down either. The Blazers Twitter account quickly fired back with a tweet of their own asking fans to vote for their favorite Blazer of all-time, which jokingly featured Melo alongside franchise greats like Bill Walton, Brandon Roy, Clyde Drexler, and Damian Lillard.
Let’s hear ’em. #RipCity pic.twitter.com/KvJo1PLwgt
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) October 16, 2020
In fairness to the Nuggets, they were careful to use the word “favorite” instead of “greatest” or “best.” It’s a much more subjective term that allows for emotion to factor into the equation, but even that doesn’t account for snub against a superstar who spent seven seasons and a large chunk of his prime playing years there. Regardless, it’s given fans something to talk about on the first Friday of the offseason.