Troy Tulowitzki made his return to Denver this week and received a warm ovation from Rockies fans, but some are questioning why a guy like Tulowitzki got a standing ovation when a player like Carmelo Anthony got booed horrendously?
Troy Tulowitzki had success here in Denver, but if you compare his career to Anthony’s, based on what they did for each organization, Anthony had a far greater impact. He led the Nuggets to more winning and playoff seasons than Tulowitzki did by far.
“I don’t necessarily think Denver fans need to be like Philadelphia, but they are pretty quick to forget how not such a great guy or such a great story (Tulowitzki) was towards the end of his tenure with Colorado,” said Doug Ottewill, editor-in-chief of Mile High Sports magazine, as he joined The Final Verdict on Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7. “I think there are other guys in Denver that get a pretty bad rap and did a lot more and didn’t necessarily deserve a bad rap.”
When Anthony returned to Denver, it was two years after he was traded to the Knicks and during the game whenever he touched the ball a shower of boos fell down from the stands.
Anthony made it clear he wanted out of the Nuggets organization, but it’s a rare thing these days for a player to stay with an organization their whole career. After leading the Nuggets to the playoffs every year he was in Denver, Anthony was still booed. Tulowitzki led the Rockies to the playoffs only twice, in 2007 and 2009, and missed hundreds of games due to injury — coincidentally, he only played full seasons in ’07 and ’09. During his last year in Colorado he only played in 91 games.
“I’m not saying that Troy Tulowitzki wasn’t a great Colorado Rockie. He was,” said Ottewill. “Relatively speaking compared to what these other athletes did, or have done, I don’t know that he should be revered higher than any of them.”
Listen to the rest of the conversation below, where Ottewill breaks down this topic in more depth and talks about what kind of reception Brock Osweiler will get …
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