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Denver Nuggets fans gave Portland Trail Blazers veteran Carmelo Anthony an earful during Game 1 of the first-round series on Saturday night. Nuggets fans clearly still harbor some negative feelings toward Melo, even though it has now been 10 years since he forced a trade to the New York Knicks.
Anthony gave this take on the booing after the Blazers' impressive 123-109 victory:
I asked Carmelo Anthony why he thinks it is that he's still booed in Denver 10 years after he forced a trade to New York. This is what he said: pic.twitter.com/M96uLQfSOY
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) May 23, 2021
This is about as good an answer as one could expect in this situation. What else is Melo supposed to say about it? He could have gone on a diatribe about the fans, but he kept it classy and concluded that “it is what it is.”
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Given that booing, though, it had to feel good for Anthony to have a big performance off the bench for Portland. Melo got hot early and wound up finishing with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting overall and 4-of-8 from 3-land.
This was part of a balanced scoring effort led by Damian Lillard, who poured in 34 points and handed out 13 assists. Six Blazers scored in double figures as Portland shot 47.3% from the field and hit 19 3-pointers.
The Nuggets shot over 50% from the field themselves, but they only made 11 3-pointers and got to the foul line just eight times, making four of them. Nikola Jokic had 34 points and 16 rebounds of his own, but he only had one assist. Michael Porter Jr. had 25 points but made just one of his 10 3-point attempts.
Melo and the Blazers will try to take full control of this series on Monday night in Denver.
As for the Knicks, while the Melo years were something of a disappointment, they're now finally back in the playoffs for the first time since he was there. Madison Square Garden should be rocking for Game 1 against the Atlanta Hawks.
