Carmelo's Response to Suspension Shows Sign of Deeper Trouble in Denver

The Nuggets suspended Carmelo Anthony for one game because, as it turns out, he refused to come out of a game when George Karl asked him to. As Tom Ziller mentioned when the initial report came out, star players have been known to waive off their coaches on occasion -- it's typically not the end of the world, and certainly not something that warrants a suspension.

Anthony's response, however, tells me that this incident probably isn't the only one of its kind that has gone down this season.

"Well, I mean, when somebody comes to sub you out, I guess you're supposed to go out. Like I said, it was one of those things where I felt like I wanted to stay in the game and make a run and try to win that game," Anthony said.

"In my eyes I thought the situation was minute," he added. "Nobody knew what happened. ... Some of my teammates didn't even know what happened. The only people who knew was me, George and the person that was coming to sub me in."

Besides refusing to publicly apologize, Anthony's comments reveal that there was no argument with Karl, so it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to suspend your star player for something like this.

Unless, maybe, there's been a history of internal conflicts this season that the public has been unaware of? It's purely speculative of course, but without a series of incidents where Anthony has been insubordinate to his head coach, the suspension seems a bit heavy-handed, doesn't it?

Now, the news piece on this mentions that Karl had a similar situation come up when he coached the Milwaukee Bucks, and that Tim Thomas was the player at the time that refused to sub out of the game when asked. The Bucks didn't allow Karl to suspend Thomas, and the lack of support he received from the organization led to him losing his players, and eventually, his job.

But isn't Carmelo Anthony like, six levels above a Tim Thomas on the superstar scale? It just seems like a very different scenario than the one that went down in Milwaukee, and suspending Anthony for something this insignificant seems like Karl getting back at his player for a series of (possibly minor) transgressions. Karl's overly-smug comments when asked if he believed this might happen again make it seem like that's exactly what might be going on here.

"I was shocked it happened at all," Karl said. "So, I'm probably very convinced that it won't happen again."

You win, George. But it would seem that something has got to give in Denver at this point, and it's a lot easier to replace a stubborn head coach than it is to replace a troubled superstar -- just ask the Phoenix Suns.