Nuggets had just lost at Utah last spring, their sixth first-round playoff-series loss in Anthony's seven seasons.
After answering the media's questions, Carmelo Anthony exited the illuminated room into the gray and drab snaking hallways beneath Energy Solutions Arena, from where he escaped the nightmare.
The Nuggets had just lost at Utah last spring, their sixth first-round playoff-series loss in Anthony's seven seasons. The team was in disarray. The coach was home in Denver, battling cancer. Guard J.R. Smith was pouting like a toddler. Three key big men were losing their battle with injuries. Two key front-office executives had expiring contracts.
"It wasn't the fact that we lost — but how we lost, how we conducted ourselves," Anthony said recently. "For me, I don't think it was classy the way we went out. I don't think we went
out with a fight."
When he walked to the team bus that April night, it was the last time Anthony was truly, wholeheartedly a Nugget. While the weight of the franchise rested on his chiseled shoulders, what Nuggets officials and fans didn't know was that he already was all but gone, though he had a year left on his contract.
On Monday night, it became official. Denver traded their all-star forward to the New York Knicks for four players and three draft picks.
How did Denver lose Anthony, arguably the best player in franchise history?
Read more: Nuggets had just lost at Utah last spring, their sixth first-round playoff-series loss in Anthony's seven seasons.
