Who's To Blame?

So the number one sports story in Denver these days is Carmelo Anthony. The Nuggets offered him a 3 year, $65 million contract extension back in June, which he so far has not signed. He insists that he has not requested a trade, but by refusing to sign the extension, he is saying that he is not staying in Denver beyond the 2010-11 season, so the Nuggets had better get something for him while they can lest they end up like the Cleveland Cavaliers. Carmelo has enormous leverage, because the Nuggets can't get fair compensation in a trade unless Carmelo signs the extension first - no team is going to give the Nuggets much if they are only guaranteed one year of Carmelo.

Everyone pretty much seems to agree that the motivation for Carmelo to leave town is that he wants to play in a bigger market so he can make more cash off endorsements. He also has this wife La La Vasquez, who is apparently a super famous TV star - I've never heard of her in a non-Carmelo context, so she can't be that great. Anyways, the word is that she also wants him playing somewhere other than Denver.

So everyone is kind of peeved about Carmelo dissing the great state of Colorado. As for me, I don't really care that much. It would have been nice to see him stick around and strive to obtain a John Elway-like celebrity here, but if that's not what he wants, then whatever. Basketball careers don't last that long.

The angle that no one seems to be exploring is that the Nuggets really haven't done crap to make it enticing for him to stick around, other than offering $65 million.

Stan Kroenke, the owner of the Nuggets, has seemed more concerned with owning a franchise in every sports league in the world than improving the teams he currently owns. The Nuggets have been operating under financial constraints for awhile because Stan doesn't want to pay the NBA luxury tax incurred when teams exceed the salary cap. So the Nuggets haven't been aggressive in recent years in adding the pricier talent to their roster.


"If my in-laws got rich selling cheap crap in their stores, then I can get even more rich selling cheap crap to fans, right?"







Operating on a budget is great, but if your net worth is $1.8 million and your sugar daddy is Wal-Mart, is that a valid reason? Not really, considering poor old Stan managed to scrape up enough change to buy the remaining 60% interest in the NFL's St. Louis Rams.

Also, ownership decided not to extend the contract of general manager Mark Warkentien over the summer. He was only the NBA Executive of the Year in 2009. The Nuggets have replaced him with somebody named Masai Ujiri, who I'm sure no one but the most passionate of NBA insiders had ever heard of before. And to top it all off, Stan has to turn over the car keys to his son, Josh Kroenke, as a result of his ownership of the Rams. I think Josh is younger than me.

So I can't say I totally blame Carmelo for wanting to move on. I mean, if the team owner isn't that interested in the team, why should you be?