“Ask for your money back,” Carmelo Anthony didn’t hesitate to point his finger at the New York Knicks CEO and demanded the heckler to call out the right person. However, later, he had to apologize for it. At that moment, his only focus was on his game and was troubled by the results of the game. And perhaps he had bottled up the frustration for a longer time than we know. It might have started when Dolan met with Melo and the Denver Nuggets at the front offices’ meeting for the 10x NBA All-Star’s trade.

In a recent episode of 7 PM in Brooklyn, the basketball legend spoke about his trade to the Knicks with Adrian Wojnarowski. After spending seven and a half seasons with the Denver Nuggets and facing losses in the playoffs, Melo was looking for a new home. The Knicks were his most preferred destination, and owner Dolan was fond of the idea. In an urge to add Melo to the roster, he even decided to add additional draft picks to get the deal done.

However, Melo was concerned with the team giving up its young players to bring him in. He also felt that Dolan tried to pretend he was well-versed and prepared to talk about the trade at the meeting. Melo recalled that the $8.3 billion (as per USA Today) rich New York Knicks’ franchise owner had brought a huge fat folder. Right, it was at the front office meeting at Los Angeles during the 2011 NBA All-Star Weekend. However, only one sheet of the huge file had any sort of information. 

“Dolan came back with a purple envelope. There was one sheet in there that had numbers on it. It looked like some numbers that were just put together showing how we could really get this done. Basic spreadsheet. 101 spreadsheet,” Anthony said in the podcast. Now, years after the meeting, Melo recalled that one wrong move could have stopped him getting traded. “If they would have called his bluff on that s**t right then, I’d have been in Denver forever. If they would’ve called his f*****g bluff, there wasn’t nothing in those folders.”

Speaking of the stressful moment, he recounted, “And Dolan said, ‘You’ve taken everything. That’s all I have,’ and pulled his hands out of his pockets. That was a sick moment, man.” Even while Melo was yet to be traded to the Knicks at the time, he urged that the team shouldn’t be messed up just to acquire him. He could see how much the Knicks were ready to pay and he wasn’t fond of it and even tried to stop Dolan.

The Knicks gave up a lot of valuable assets in the trade, but it ultimately didn’t piece together great for the Knicks. Despite all the efforts and sacrifices, the Knicks were never able to go beyond the second round of the NBA playoffs. Even with Melo being with them for six and a half seasons. Despite the immense efforts the former star had put in to uplift the team, it didn’t work.

Melo with the Knicks was an insane ride. At some point, the former player began to get frustrated, and his emotions exploded when he faced a heckler on the court.

What happened between Carmelo Anthony and the heckler that day?

During the Knicks’ 104-85 loss to Portland in 2016, a fan continued to hurl criticism and insults towards the forward. The Knicks were heading toward their 15th loss in the last 18 games. And as upsetting as it is, the players weren’t the only ones disappointed and frustrated.

This is when Melo lost his calm. He looked back and told the fan to demand his money back from the owner. “He kept calling my name, saying ‘You guys suck,’ At that point I was trying to gather myself and I turned around, all I did was point at Dolan and told him, ‘Look, the owner’s right there. Ask for your money back.’ He’s calling me and telling me he’s never coming to another game and we suck. Just don’t want to hear that. I pointed to the owner and told him you deal with that with him, maybe you can get your money back,” Anthony told New York Daily News.

Unfortunately for the fans, regardless of the game’s results, they can’t demand their money back. As for Melo, the team released a statement the following day declaring that he shouldn’t have said that to the fan. But the drama didn’t end there. 

Just moments after the statement was released, Melo suggested that it was Dolan’s idea to release it. “It was Mr. Dolan’s decision,” he said. Back then the Knicks legend reassured them that they were good during a conversation with the media. But there was some mild tension. However, years later, the situation has changed, as any slight bitterness or tension that might have been there has clearly disappeared. Melo’s wine brand, VII(N) The Seventh Estate now also holds a partnership deal with Madison Square Garden. This shows that both are clearly on good terms in present.