"OK, let's dispense with the nonsense about Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari. Please stop with the comparisons to Dirk Nowitzki before somebody strains all credibility or a back muscle.

And Gallinari will never be as good a basketball player as Carmelo Anthony.

But I'll give you this: Gallo could become better loved than Melo ever was by Denver residents.

Starting with Nuggets coach George Karl.

"I think you could see Gallo playing in an All-Star Game someday," Karl told me Monday."