The Denver Nuggets Won the NBA Championship: When Will Denver Get Respect as a Sports Town
As luck would have it, I was on the road traveling from Idaho Falls, Idaho to Salt Lake City, Utah during a torrential downpour and wasn’t able to watch the final game of the Denver Nuggets vs. Miami Heat playoff series. My friend and I finally made it to Salt Lake City and checked in just in time for me to see the end of the game.
I may have teared up and cried. It had been a hard day and the Denver Nuggets win was wonderful way to end it. I’d grown up watching the Denver Nuggets and while I believed we could win an NBA Championship there was a bit of frustration too. Because it hadn’t happened once in 47 years. Not until 2023.
Going into the finals I started to notice something that I’d seen and experienced over and over again as a Denverite and just as a Coloradan-disrespect. I thought I would share what this win means, why we’ll likely still be disrespected even though all we do is win as a seriously competitive sports town.
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NBA Championship Parade (June 15, 2023)
Even Denver’s weather understood that it had to respect the moment and stop raining so that we could celebrate. Even the idea that people would come out for the parade was up for debate by the naysayers.
But, we the fans knew that what we were watching was magical. I’m being serious. A team that clearly respected one another, a coach that treated his players like they were his kids and just the vibes around the team were…immaculate.
But, for long-time fans the story of this championship is incomplete without mentioning a few other prominent players. And, I apologize now for missing some names.
- Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf-Who’s protest and subsequent decision to stop standing for the National Anthem clearly ended his career before it was time.
- Carmelo Anthony-I’ll admit that sometimes I felt like he was struggling with culture shock while living in Denver. Maybe that loss of place impacted his play while he was here?
- Dikembe-Mutombo-Who started his professional basketball career with the Denver Nuggets.
- Alex English, Dan Issel, Chauncey Billups and Chris “The Birdman” Anderson
What amazed me while working on this piece was how many talented players had played for the Nuggets and for one reason or another things just didn’t work and the NBA Championship remained elusive.
Stick This in Your Pipe (And Smoke It)
In the months and weeks leading up to the playoffs there was one voice that consistently shared the Denver Nuggets’ praises: Charles Barkley. Seriously, give the man a raise.
Then there were the haters. So. many. haters.
From other teams fans to sports anchors and sports analysts. Even after the Denver Nuggets swept the L.A. Lakers.
Legacy teams are wonderful but the underdog is always better. I had friends saying that no one would watch the series and that the fan viewership would drop.
They were wrong.
People forget that this is a big country. We’re not all fans of these legacy teams. That new energy coming from an unexpected place excites people. This was reflected in the highest finals television ratings in 5 years and over 750,000 parade attendees celebrated the Nuggets on a sunny and warm Thursday. For perspective, the city of Denver has a little over 700,000 citizens. A lot of people came into town to celebrate this win.
Denver is a sports town.
In fact, the Denver Nuggets NBA championship Parade and celebration was the third such parade in the past 7 years.
- Denver Broncos Super Bowl 50 in 2016
- Colorado Avalanche Stanley Cup in 2022
We also have Colorado Mammoth who won the NLL (National Lacrosse League Championship in 2022)
Denver stays winning. There are other championships that I haven’t even listed.
Denver is a Big Little City
But, it’s not the cowtown that everyone outside of the state seems to think it still is. Things change. To Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., Christian Braun, Aaron Gordon, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Bruce Brown and a special shout out to Reggie Jackson who grew up in Colorado Springs as well as the rest of the team-congratulations!
A Special Message to Coach Malone
It was so fun to observe your joy as we watched you during the NBA Championship Parade. But, more than that it was amazing to watch how well you treated the players on the team. It’s not hard to see why they thrived in such a positive atmosphere.
Thank you for your leadership.
Haters are gonna hate, but we definitely showed the world what we’re capable of.