HoopsHype.com NBA Blogs - Chris Tomasson

Wherever the Nuggets play on the road in the postseason, Carmelo Anthony can count on not hearing one thing.

“DUI. DUI. DUI.’’

That was the chant at the Staples Center during a first-round playoff series last spring. The Nuggets star forward had been arrested on suspicion of drunk driving April 14, 2008, and Lakers fans were not kind to him during a four-game sweep that got underway six days later.

But what a difference a year has made for Anthony and his Nuggets. Last year, they entered the playoffs a distracted team, thanks to the Anthony arrest that came shortly before the final regular-season game. Now, though, it’s a carefree bunch of Nuggets that will show up for the postseason.

Denver (54-27) clinched the Northwest Division with a 118-98 win Monday over Sacramento. The win assured that a team that has lost five straight years in the first round of the playoffs will open the postseason at home for the first time since 1988.

Anthony, who has been a part of all those first-round defeats, said he’s “starving’’ to finally break through. He certainly will begin the playoffs in a much better frame of mind than last year, when he was involved in an incident that led him to be suspended for the first two games of this season.

“I look back on it now, I don’t want to say it’s funny, but it’s behind me now,’’ said Anthony, who eventually plea-bargained to a lesser charge of driving while ability impaired. “It’s old and it seems so long ago that I happened, although it was a year. And so it goes to show how much I came around from that.’’

Indeed Anthony has.

It’s true his career has been marred by a lot of other negative headlines (a 2004 New York nightclub altercation, a 2004 cameo in the controversial Stop Snitchin’ DVD, a 2004 charge for having marijuana in a backpack that was dropped when the marijuana was determined to have belonged to a friend and a 2006 15-game suspension for throwing a punch in a brawl at New York). But many believe that, in is sixth season, Anthony is finally starting to get it.

Yes, this season featured a March 2 one-game team suspension for Anthony failing to come of a game when Nuggets coach George Karl sought a substitute. But both agree that wasn’t a major issue, and it was nothing compared to the distraction Anthony caused his team on the eve of last season’s playoffs.

“That probably falls into a big mistake,’’ Karl said. “It could have been worse. Hopefully, now, at a very young age, he understands you should never do that.’’

But Karl has seen Anthony continue to mature since then, both on and off the court. He’s talked about Anthony, 24, having grown into a leader after before being just a talented player.

“He’s had a consistent growth spurt,’’ said Karl, “I think every month it’s kind of like, his eyes are open, his mind is open.’’

Over the past year, Anthony has learned even more about the responsibility of being a public figure. He’s been lauded for the dignity he displayed in representing Team USA during last summer’s Olympics, when the “Redeem Team’’ mined gold in Beijing.

It was far different than what had transpired four years earlier in Athens, when the “Green Team,’’ a collection of players too young for the international stage, settled for bronze. Anthony squabbled with coach Larry Brown and barely played.

While in China, Anthony was an ambassador, engaging the Chinese with his personality and showing up at a variety of events. He spent some time with swimming stud Michael Phelps, who also is from Baltimore.

Six months after the Olympics, Phelps got to stand in Anthony’s shoes when it came to a superstar athlete having a negative brush with the law. Then again, after a photo surfaced of Phelps taking a marijuana hit from a bong, maybe it wasn’t that similar.

“In his situation, it’s kind of different than mine,’’ Anthony said. “We grew up (in Baltimore) in two different walks of life. He was the guy who was clean cut. Nobody ever expected anything from him. And finally then, when it hit, that’s why everybody has come down so hard on him. Like what did Michael Phelps do? I can’t believe he did this. I felt bad for him. But he owned up to his mistake.’’

It must be said Phelps also was arrested on a DUI charge in 2004, shortly after the Athens Olympics. He eventually got 18 months probation for pleading guilty.

Phelps’ sentence required him to give speeches to schools. That’s what Anthony soon must do as part of his penalty.

“I’m going to speak at a couple of assemblies,’’ Anthony said of telling students about the perils of drinking and driving. “Whatever I can do to help them out.’’

The way the Nuggets are playing lately, though, chances are Anthony might end up fielding a lot more questions about that.

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No little man ever had a billboard this big.

In mid-March, a month after he had won his second All-Star slam-dunk contest, New York diminutive guard Nate Robinson was invited to midtown Manhattan by some Nike folks. At one point, the 5-foot-9 Robinson was told to look up at a company creation.

“I was shocked,’’ Robinson said about what he saw. “I mean, thank God.’’

What Robinson saw was a bigger billboard than anybody put up even for very tall legend David Robinson. Looming over 34th Street and 7th Avenue was an 80-foot tribute, showing Robinson posing with the ball in midair above the words, “Leaps Tall Centers.’’

That was a reference to Robinson vaulting over defending champion Dwight Howard to win the slam-dunk competition.

“I wouldn’t have won it if he hadn’t helped me out on my dunk,’’ said Robinson, who also won the dunk crown in 2006 and in February called it “Kryptonate’’ putting an to the reign of Orlando’s “Superman.’’

“It was kind of cool. I said we could split the trophy down the middle or share it or whatever.’’

After the All-Star break, Robinson has continued to jump over foes. And shoot over them.

In 22 games since the break, Robinson has averaged 22.3 points to raise his average to 18.1

“Guys like Calvin Murphy and Earl Boykins, they come to mind, who have tremendous impact, mostly on the offensive end of the court,’’ Denver coach George Karl said of watching Robinson. “His spirit kind of motivates the Knicks every once in a while… with his feistiness, his energy, his spunk.’’

What Robinson also has done lately is really turn some heads for those who vote for the Little Guy Hall of Fame.

OK, so there really isn’t such a Hall of Fame. But if there ever is one honoring players under 5-10 (sorry, but how can another Nate have been called Tiny Archibald when he was 6-1?), the honorees would be pretty apparent.

At the head of the class would be 5-9 actual Hall of Famer Murphy. Next would be the likes of 5-3 Muggsy Bogues, the 5-5 Boykins, 5-7 Spud Webb and 5-8 Charlie Criss.

But, if you want to talk about the history of NBA little men, surprisingly don’t go to Robinson. He doesn’t know anything about Murphy despite the fact he averaged 17.9 points from 1970-83 and paved the way for other little guys.

Robinson has met Webb, the smallest man to have won a slam-dunk title when he did so in 1986. But that’s about it.

Robinson is unlike Boykins, who used to thank the little guys who came before him so much Webb finally told him to stop thanking him.

“I’m not worried about making the (Little Guy) Hall of Fame,’’ Robinson said. “I just want to be known as one of the best players in the NBA.’’

But there is somebody traveling with the Knicks who can speak about Robinson’s place among small men in NBA history. That would be television analyst and Hall of Famer Walt Frazier, who either has played against or broadcast games involving all of the notable little guys named above.

After Murphy, Frazier names Robinson as the second-best player under 5-10 in NBA history. And the four-year veteran’s 12.5 career scoring average is the second-highest among such players, trailing only Murphy.

“He’s 5-9, but he plays like he’s 6-6 with his leaping ability and his tenacity,’’ Frazier said. “Spud Webb, even though he could jump, he wasn’t the physical specimen that Nate is. With his football background, he’s a unique guy. That’s what separates him.’’

Frazier called it “phenomenal’’ when Robinson had a 13-game stretch from mid-February to mid-March in which he averaged 27.2 points. Still, Frazier calls it 50-50 whether Robinson will return to the Knicks after he becomes a restricted free agent this summer.

The Knicks also have forward David Lee becoming a restricted free agent. They’re watching costs carefully, wanting to have big-time salary-cap room in 2010.

“The problem, from what I hear, is they can’t sign both of them,’’ Frazier said. “So one of them will have to go, unfortunately. I don’t know which. It’s a tough decision’’

If Robinson is the one to go, there is one bigger drawback. Somebody would have to take down the 80-foot billboard.

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