Ever since it became clear that Carmelo Anthony wasn't going to sign the Nuggets generous three-year, $65 million extension over the summer no less than 50 Denver Stiffs readers have suggested we create a petition similar to what we did for Chris Andersen two years ago. The petition is now live, but it wasn't created by Denver Stiffs…
I can't speak for Nate or Jeff, but I've thought long and hard about putting together a Carmelo Anthony petition for months. I ultimately decided not to do it myself for two reasons.
First, unlike the "Bring Back Birdman" petition from 2009 (in which I advocated for the re-signing of Chris Andersen for about $3 million per season for three seasons…less than what he got in case you feel like blaming me for him getting overpaid), Melo hasn't given any firm indication of wanting to stay in Denver whereas Birdman desperately wanted to be here. Therefore, the Birdman petition was aimed at Nuggets management and not at the player. In fact, I actually handed a physical copy of the petition to all three of the Nuggets executives at the time: Bret Bearup, Mark Warkentien and Rex Chapman.
Second, I will NOT beg Carmelo Anthony to accept our $65 million offer. And make no mistake about it, that's our money as fans that we're talking about here. Just a season ago, fans in Cleveland fell all over themselves begging LeBron James to re-sign as a Cavalier. They signed petitions, paid for billboards, brought signs to the games, etc. It was embarrassing even before they were left empty-handed and humiliated on national TV and I don't want to see Nuggets fans go through the same embarrassment. Lest we forget that Melo sneezes more money than most of us make in a year.
But since I do want Melo to stay and equally want to support our fellow Stiff "SPORTSFAN", I gladly signed the petition and am happy to promote it (as should all of you). As I've written about extensively, Melo will be making a bad basketball decision if he decides to leave Denver. The Nuggets play to date this season reinforces it further. Melo's decision will be even worse if he leaves Denver and millions of dollars on the table to boot. But ultimately, it's his choice to make and not ours.
That said, having a few thousand signatures to hand to #15 before or after a game one night won't hurt. We just need lots of signatures to make it worth it.
So, please take a minute to sign the “Carmelo Sign Your Extension!” petition and I’ll do my best to get the word out about this and get it into Melo’s hands.
