Carmelo Anthony has expressed his belief that the Denver Nuggets had concealed motives when they assigned the No. 15 jersey to Nikola Jokic, calling it a “petty maneuver.”

Anthony suggested that this move was an attempt to diminish his legacy with the team, sharing his perspective during an appearance on 7PM in Brooklyn.

“It was a petty maneuver,” Anthony noted. “It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, we got numbers to choose from.’ It was like, ‘Here, you got 15.’ And y’all put Jokic in the middle of that. He don’t know what the f is going on. He could’ve been like, ‘I wanna wear 15.’ They could’ve been like, ’15 is here. I can wear 15. Oh, that’s Melo’s number.’

“He could have worn it because he wanted to pay homage, but what I believe is that they gave him 15 to try to erase what I did.”

The Nuggets drafted Anthony with the No. 3 overall pick in 2003, and he played with the team until he was traded to the New York Knicks in the middle of his eighth season.

Anthony had a successful individual tenure with the Nuggets, earning six All-Star selections and leading the team to multiple playoff appearances, including a run to the Western Conference Finals in 2009.

Despite not being a star player in his early NBA career, Jokic was chosen 41st overall in the 2014 NBA Draft. Since then, he has emerged as the team’s face and succeeded where Anthony failed to during his time with the Nuggets, taking home two MVP awards and an NBA championship.

Anthony acknowledged Jokic’s accomplishments and the fact that the Serbian center has now become synonymous with the No. 15 jersey in Denver.

“When you think of 15 in Denver now, to this generation, you think Joker,” he said.

“And there’s nothing towards that. It’s just, it was two different generations. So that just goes to show me that y’all [Nuggets] not past that moment. This is 2010. This is 13 years ago. So, if you are, you are holding on to something that was 13 years ago.”