Carmelo Anthony Reveals Allen Iverson’s Key Impact That Led to “Beatles” Recreation at Denver

LeBron James, Derrick Rose, and Damian Lillard. All big names, but what do they have in common? Well, for one, they all were teammates to the NBA legend Carmelo Anthony. But if there was one who he connected with the most in the short amount of time was only Allen Iverson. To date, the bond is cherished as AI wished Kiyan for his Syracuse announcement. Even Melo shared the post and wrote, “Family.” Even though their on-court partnership was short, the Knicks legend described how exactly he felt playing alongside the 76ers legend.

“When AI came, he took it to whole another level. Now it’s like he got his own sh– going on. He got his own world coming on into Denver. Now this is mine, so now AI is like ‘I need you, I’m tired of trying to do this sh– all by myself. So he understood the assignment.” On his podcast, the 10x All-Star explained that the presence of Iverson uplifted the entire team’s persona.

“We came together and then the way we were moving; it wasn’t just we were rock stars like the Beatles.” Even though Bubba Chuck brought stardom, it also led to improving their camaraderie.

“One thing was we were loyal to each other.” Although they had no championship to show for it, the Iverson-Anthony duo averaged 26.3 points per game. Not to forget, in the 2007-08 season, they ranked third and fourth respectively on the list of top scorers in the league.

Interestingly, Carmelo Anthony’s highest-scoring regular season was in 2006-07, the season when Iverson donned the Nuggets jersey for the first time. That’s why on his 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, Melo had praise for AI during the Denver days.

Carmelo Anthony on his mentor Allen Iverson

During the Nuggets run, there was a chance for Melo to form a partnership with The Big 3. There were multiple conversations since they were in the same draft class and wanted to create a dynasty. But at the time, Anthony wanted to focus on building his own path. So the addition of Allen Iverson came at the right time.

“He [Iverson] was the only one I could look up to because I felt like he was the only one who understood my dynamics and what I was dealing with and what I was going through and still have to be someone of elite on a daily basis.” Once Carmelo Anthony detailed about his feelings of having AI as his idol. 

Even for Iverson, he did not have to worry about being the best player every day. In an old interview, he stated that the best part of playing with Anthony was never dealing with the pressure of scoring. He recalled a game where he scored around 14 points, but the Nuggets won by 27 points. That’s why the partnership was perfect.