On April 7 2010, during a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony briefly left the world of the living. As Anthony was being guarded by Kevin Durant, he attempted a drive to his left, but ended up bumping his head into Durant’s hip, knocking him out cold.
With Anthony lying prostrate on the ground, the game was stopped. Not on account of Anthony’s injury, but for a much more cynical reason – because his unsuccessful drive was called a travel. No one on the Thunder’s side, nor the refereeing crew, stopped play to check on Melo, who lay on the ground clutching his head with both hands. In fact, play restarted within seconds.
Despite having a man advantage and the element of surprise on their side, the Thunder turned the ball over themselves a few seconds later, with the ball winding up in the hands of Anthony’s Nuggets team mate, J.R. Smith. Common sense would dictate at this point that at least the Nuggets would call timeout, and finally get someone to take a look at Melo. But Smith, ever the mercurial one, had another ideas.
J.R. Smith Always Went His Own Way
Already disadvantaged four on five, Smith decided to lessen the odds even further and try for a one-on-five lust for glory. He tried to drive the ball to the rim, hoping to take advantage of the space opened up by having an unconscious man lying on the floor, but got in his own way, lost the ball, scrambled to get it back, and committed a travel of his own. He took on an entire defence, instead of calling an appropriate timeout – something which would also be a weakness of his eight years later.
At this point, the game was finally put out of its misery, as Melo finally received long-overdue medical attention at the resultant stoppage in play. Since that time, in the 15 years hence, fans have had questions – namely, was Anthony actually unconscious or just posturing, and why on Earth did Smith try and freelance over his stricken comrade on one of the lower percentage plays imaginable?
The first one of those was answered by Melo himself last year. Speaking on his podcast, 7pm in Brooklyn With Carmelo Anthony, Melo confirmed that he was indeed spark out on the ground, a fact that, even if it were not true, it would probably be in his best interests to claim.
“I was really out cold…I ran into his [Durant’s] hip bone…I got hit in the temporal [bone] and I blacked out. […] All I was seeing was darkness.”
Time Is A Great Healer
The baffling part, though, was always Smith’s decision. Then-teammate Chauncey Billups – now head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers – was at least critical at the time;
“I couldn’t believe J.R. would try to go for the layup. I was like, ‘Dude, are you serious? Call timeout man, you see the dude ain’t move. What in the world are you thinking about?”
Given that his own teammates were calling out his decision, and given how unsuccessful it was, you would think that Smith may have come to regret it slightly. Nope.
A follow-up episode of 7pm in May of this year saw Smith debut as a guest. In a long, insightful and fun discussion about his career, particularly the parts that intertwined with Melo’s, particularly their shared time together with the Nuggets, Smith (referred to throughout as “Swish”) told stories and answered questions about himself and his career. He was one of the more enigmatic players of his generation, and he knows the value of that.
As a final question of the episode, Melo’s co-host, The Kid Mero, asked about the 2010 pass-out play. He was going for the playful wind-up. But Smith stood firm; after all, he figured Melo would have done the same..
‘He would do it [to] me. “You good, Swish? All right, don’t worry about it.” After this [expletive] goes in, we’re going to foul.’
Well, then. As you were, gents.
J.R. Smith Stands by Attempt To Score Over Unconscious Carmelo Anthony