The Denver Nuggets knew that as a seasoned NBA player, Allen Iverson had a wealth of experience to share with younger athletes. However, when it came to mentoring Carmelo Anthony, "The Answer" felt that his fellow superstar was already well-equipped to handle the demands of high-level NBA basketball.
Iverson had faced numerous challenges and overcome obstacles throughout his career as his team's main guy, making him a perfect figure in guiding up-and-coming talents like Melo . Yet, the 2001 NBA MVP recognized that the young phenom didn't need some spoon-feeding teaching from a veteran like him.
For A.I., the best thing he could contribute to Anthony's growth as a player was to be a good role model.
"First of all, I just look at it as him being a teammate of mine," Iverson told Inside Hoops of his impact on Anthony back in 2007. "Whenever you can help a teammate of yours, you try to give a hand, and I would hope that he would do the same for me. I'm older than him. I've been where he's at."
"I've been through all the ups and downs in my career. It's not like a thing where we come every day, and I write on the chalkboard, 'Today's subject is going to be this, Carmelo,' and me and him sit down, and I teach him about this and that. He's a grown man. He just had a kid. He has a fiancée. He's got good people around him. All I want to do is be a positive influence on him and help him when he needs me. And I'm pretty sure he'll help me as well," the four-time NBA scoring champion continued.
A dynamic scoring duo in Mile High City
Iverson and Anthony had a two-year stint as co-stars in Denver. Throughout that stretch, they shared the floor in 113 games. The two perennial All-Stars joined forces, forming a dynamic duo that captivated basketball fans with their relentless scoring.
With A.I. and Melo leading the charge, the Nuggets amassed a total of 101.5 points per game to become the second-best in the league in that category in the 2007-08 season. The pair also managed to lead Mile-High City to an impressive 50-32 record, clinching the eighth seed in the highly-competitive Western Conference.
In that season, "The Answer" averaged 26.4 points per game, while Melo logged almost an identical tally of 25.7 per outing. Unfortunately, Iverson and Anthony's scoring prowess as a duo wasn't enough to go deep in the playoffs. Nevertheless, their partnership is still regarded as one of the greatest moments in Nuggets' history.
Coach Karl opened up about the Iverson-Melo duo
With their charisma and notoriety in scoring, Allen and Carmelo made Denver a promising team. While that had always been the case, the duo's insatiable desire to score ultimately undermined the team's chemistry and success.
It was something then-Nuggets head coach George Karl realized as he looked back at the A.I.-Melo tandem . Admittedly, Karl didn't expect it to pan out the way it did, as he was pleased by how the two of the most versatile scorers in NBA history performed in the beginning.
To sum it all up, Karl reckoned that Iverson and Anthony's individual scoring pursuits eventually created tension and division within the team.
"I think the A.I.-Melo experience that we thought could work or might work, it kind of, it worked a little bit, and instead of going to the positive and working better, it kind of wore, and it kind of wore out a little bit," Karl once reflected .
"And I think players understood that it was difficult to find shots with the two guys that wanted to shoot it 20 times a game, so it created a little bit of negative energy in our basketball."
Related: Julius Erving believes no player is similar to him in the modern NBA: “I was a small forward, but I really played like a power forward”
A.I.'s career went through a downward spiral after leaving Denver
Truth be told, Iverson continued to put on remarkable performances during his run with the Nuggets. Though the team didn't get the results they wanted, "The Answer" seemed to have found a good fit in Denver, playing alongside Anthony.
However, his career took a turn after he was traded to the Detroit Pistons for Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyese. After leaving the Nuggets, A.I.'s game began to decline. Once again, Iverson was viewed as a leader in Detroit, but he struggled to adapt to the Pistons' system, and his production and efficiency started to drop.
Understandably, the Pistons pulled the plug on Iverson and parted ways with the future Hall of Famer. In his final seasons in the league, Allen had a brief stop with the Memphis Grizzlies before making an epic return to the Philadelphia 76ers. Sadly, the once unstoppable scoring machine was never able to recapture his mojo again.
In retrospect, it's safe to say that though he didn't consider himself a mentor to Anthony, Iverson's time with the Nuggets was the last time he played a key role in his NBA career.
Related: Stephen Curry on why he idolized Allen Iverson during his youth - "As a little kid, I always wanted to be like Allen Iverson"
Local News
Comments / 0