With Carmelo Anthony making his return to the Denver Nuggets’ lineup tonight against the Blazers, he and his coach say the incident that led to a one-game suspension is behind them. This, however, doesn’t necessarily mean that ‘Melo agrees with the punishment.
According to Anthony, he didn’t scream at Karl, and was simply trying to win a game … by refusing to sit on the bench when asked.
From the Denver Post:
“In my eyes, I thought the situation was minute,” Anthony said in his first public comments about the suspension. “Nobody really knew what happened. I didn’t think it was going to get as big as it got. He (coach George Karl) took that stance. At that point in time it wasn’t no need for me to even try to argue with it. He was already in the mode about a suspension. The suspension already took place. It happened.”
Karl and Anthony talked Wednesday about the incident and the suspension, to make sure they could move forward. “Like I told other people, I never had no words with George; we never had an argument,” Anthony said. “It’s just he took a stand on what happened and resolved it with a suspension.”
George will be happy to know that next time Carmelo’s instructed to sub out of a game, like a good soldier, his star forward will “sprint” to the bench.
