With the New York Knicks coming to town and the Nuggets playing poor basketball all week, there was no shortage of meaningful Nuggets quotes from the last few days. Here’s a recap…
On Tuesday, Carmelo Anthony gave the New York Post’s Peter Vecsey a one-on-one interview:
“I’m not Chris Bosh,” [Carmelo] Anthony declared. “We’re not the same person. What I do will be straight up. Management knows that.”
And also from Vecsey:
"I'm just like LeBron," Anthony emphasized in the Nuggets' locker room following Saturday's practice. "It's all about winning. That's all I care about. I want the chance to compete at the championship level. All the other stuff is irrelevant."
After Anthony's Nuggets defeated the Knicks, The Denver Post's Woody Paige caught up with former Knick and current Nugget Al Harrington on the Melo contract situation:
“If it were me, I’d sign. I couldn’t sleep at night if there was $65 million dollars laying on the table.”
But according to AOL Fanhouse's Chris Tomasson, Melo isn't losing any sleep at all:
"I'm good,'' Anthony said. "I'm sleeping good at night. With my family, I sleep good at night. It ain't about the money."
The Post's Benjamin Hochman asked Melo if he thought about playing for the Knicks while playing against them:
“I never thought about that tonight. Not once. That wasn’t even on my mind.”
Meanwhile, Hochman's colleague Chris Dempsey asked George Karl about his future in Denver:
“…at the end of this year, my health is more important. I’ll walk away from the game of basketball.” I’m not saying that’s what I want, but I’m not saying that I haven’t thought about that more than any time in my life.”
And Dempsey also got Karl to go on the record about sitting J.R. Smith for two consecutive games in favor of playing former unknown Gary Forbes:
“I’ve got a kid playing better than he is playing. And I don’t have minutes to share.”
Finally, after losing a heart breaker to a Portland team missing it's best player, Karl pulled out the oldest trick in the coach's playbook when things aren't going your way: blame the refs. In reference to the game's final play in which Arron Afflalo may or may not have been fouled, Karl said:
“Everyone in the building thought it was a foul — I thought the fans even thought it was a foul. That’s a tough whistle to get on the road, but I thought it was a foul.”
So there you have it. Melo thinks he’s “just like LeBron,” Big Al thinks Melo is nuts for not signing a $65 million extension, George Karl still can’t stand J.R. Smith and the Nuggets are .500 with an unimpressive 6-6 record.
In other words, nothing has changed in Nuggets Nation.