Carmelo Anthony has had a career resurgence in Portland. The ten-time All-Star’s playing days seemed to be over after playing just ten games for the Houston Rockets last season. This season though, he has a renewed sense of energy and is starting and averaging over 32 minutes per game for the Trail Blazers.
During Game 2 of Portland’s first round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers, ESPN analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson discussed not just what Melo has become, but what he was in the heyday of his career. The two agreed that this is the first season in a long time Melo seems to be making an effort on defense.
Van Gundy said it is clearly a change in attitude by Carmelo Anthony. He said that Melo was “putting more into the defense. Maybe before he didn’t play as hard defensively.”
Jackson didn’t think the explanation was that simple.
“Okay, then I’ll tell you this. Then it’s a shared responsibility for whoever allowed that defense to be played, because for some reason, he has bought into this culture and he’s committed to it.”
The analyst didn’t single out anyone, but Jackson seemed to be implying that former coaches and players made it easy for Carmelo Anthony to get away with less than his best effort on the defensive side of the ball.
One of Melo’s former coaches took exception to the implication and came out guns blazing on Twitter. George Karl didn’t defend his reputation or his work with Carmelo Anthony. He instead took shots at Mark Jackson’s tenure as coach of the Golden State Warriors.
There seems to be bad blood between Karl and Jackson going back to 2013 and Andre Igoudala leaving Denver for Jackson’s Warriors team.
After learning of Karl’s comments on social media, Jackson responded, making it clear that his criticism was aimed elsewhere. He did throw a jab back at the former coach though for calling out his track record.
Karl was Carmelo Anthony’s coach for six-and-a-half seasons in Denver, beginning one year after the Nuggets made Melo the 3rd overall pick of the 2003 NBA Draft. With that much influence that early in Anthony’s career, maybe it explains why Karl would take Jackson’s words so personally, but no one else that coached Anthony took to social media with such an extreme reaction.