LONDON — That thud you heard was Nuggets fans falling on the floor with laughter as NBA star Carmelo Anthony described his new role for coach Mike Krzyzewski on Team USA.
“Believe it or not, Coach K wants me to be one of the dirty guys on the team. Do all the little things … and just be kind of the glue guy,” Anthony told me Friday, hours before the Summer Olympics officially began. “It’s easy. I go out there and my focus is not to score 30 points. My mindset is a lot different. I can just go out there and clean up shots with offensive rebounds, get loose balls and play defense.”
Oh, come on, Melo.
Defense? Not sure Anthony knows how to spell the word, much less play it.
Rebounding? Anthony is more likely to eat only blood pudding in Great Britain than acquire a taste for crashing the boards.
Glue guy? Well, he certainly has sticky fingers. Throw him a pass. It sticks. Good luck getting the basketball back.
You can call Anthony a lot of things. Olympic gold medalist. Clutch shooter. NCAA champion. Coach killer.
Disgusted by a stretch of eight losses in 10 games, Mike D’Antoni left the New York Knicks after a tough day of work in March, called his wife and said he wasn’t returning to his crummy job. Her response? Stop and buy a carton of milk on the way home.
D’Antoni is back in the game, serving on the coaching staff of Team USA. He’s working with Melo again.
It’s an uneasy reunion.
Anthony drove a beleaguered Knicks coach toward the exit in New York. Melo is pushing toward a gold medal with Team USA. D’Antonio has dealt with a superstar who would rather shoot first and ask questions later in both arenas.
“This arena has been great, let’s put it that way,” D’Antoni said.
So I asked D’Antoni as directly as possible: Is Melo a selfish basketball player?
“Here, with the Olympics, no. He’s not,” D’Antoni said.
“On this team, everybody has to give up minutes, they all have to give up shots, they all have to play defense. And that should carry over to the NBA season. That should be their mantra always. But that’s not always the case.”
Melo has scored nearly 16,000 points during his pro career, but his name is spoken with the spite of a four-letter word by many Nuggets fans. The 28-year-old forward has been stabbed with fingers of blame for chasing Jeremy Lin from New York. Heading into his 10th NBA season, Anthony is running out of time to grow up and become a true franchise player.
“I get criticism for everything, But I don’t go out on the court thinking if I do something, I’m going to get criticized. This right here, playing at the Olympics, is fun. Look around,” said Anthony, waving his hand around a big room star-studded by U.S. teammates LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant.
“I’ve got LeBron. I’ve got Kobe. I’ve got KD down there. I’ve got Chris Paul. I just do the little things on this team, and at the end of the day, it helps us win a basketball game.”
There’s no need to remind Anthony of unfinished business in Denver. He hasn’t been back to play a game since forcing a trade out of town more than a year ago. But Melo already has taken a peek at the NBA calendar for the upcoming season.
“Yes, March 13th. March 13th I’ll be in Denver,” Anthony said. “I’m pretty sure I’ll get some boos. I don’t care. I’m pretty sure I’ll get some ovation, too.”
There are a million ways to define the Olympic dream.
Melo’s calling in London?
Stuff a sock in the naysayers.
“If you can do something so well as scoring the basketball, that’s all people really see,” Anthony said, with more than a touch of defiance.
“Somebody tell me I can’t play defense. I want somebody to tell me that. I want to see that.”
Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053, mkiszla@denverpost.com or twitter.com/markkiszla
