Business is brisk at the 16th Street Mall Where the Buffalo Roam, a store that sells team memorabilia. Locals and tourists alike are walking in and walking out with anything that says Denver Nuggets, hats, hoodies, tee shirts, key chains, decals—whatever fits their budget. Sports fans want a piece of something that may never come this way again.
And why would it? The last time the Nuggets played for a championship was the bicentennial year, 1976. Back then, they were in the old ABA and playing with the old red, white and blue basketball. The team was loaded. It had David Thompson, one of the league’s best players, if not the best. It also had two future Hall of Fame players, Bobby Jones and Dan Issel. They lost.
But this year is different. The Nuggets have been the most dominant team in the NBA. Since the end of the regular season, the Nuggets have played with an abandon not seen around these parts in, well, through forever. No team has been as dominant through the playoffs.
They’ve swept through the Minnesota Timberwolves, Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers in the playoffs, winning all but three games. The coup de grace may have been sweeping the LeBron-led Lakers, a team that plenty of television talking heads were picking. They won in four—on the Lakers’ home court.
The NBA’s newly-crowned Eastern Conference Champions, Miami Heat, are set to play against the Denver Nuggets and fans are waving their Nuggets flag in any way they can. “Once the Nuggets hit the playoffs,” said Drea Copeland, manager of the mall Sportsfan, “they got a lot more popular. So, a lot more people are coming in.” The team’s popularity and the opportunity to make history—Denver history—has been such that stores like Copeland’s have had to “get more inventory.”
While stores like Copeland’s are traditional brick-and-mortar, the chance to make a buck on this once-every-fifty-years opportunity is creating a moment for small scale entrepreneurs to get a piece of the pie, too. Pop-up tent ‘stores’ can be found on corners on some of the metro area’s busiest streets. There you can buy many of the same Nuggets’ stuff but, in some cases, for less.
The championship series will be special for not only the city and state, but perhaps even more special for the players who, in 1976, came oh-so-close. Denver business- man Chuck Williams played three years with the Nuggets. In fact, without him, the last ABA contest might not have even included theNuggets.
To advance to the championship, the Nuggets had to get by the Kentucky Colonels. “We were down by two,” Williams recalled. Time was running out. The last possession was drawn up for Nugget legend David Thompson, but somehow, he either couldn’t get open or something went wrong. The ball, instead, came to Williams. “I hit the shot.” Denver went on to win the game and the series and, in doing so, advanced to the title game against the Nets.
Williams, a Denver native and University of Colorado graduate, thinks the Nuggets have all the ingredients for a championship. “I’ve been watching them the whole year,” he said. With Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and “the pieces they’ve added to the team,” he likes their chances. “Jokic continues to play on a high level and Murray’s been amazing…they’ve both elevated their game,” he said. They’ve also elevated their games at just the right time, said the former Nugget. While Jokic is winning praise for his play, Williams says this Denver team has the right combination of stars and role players to win it all. But, he cautions, there is one concern.
Between the Nuggets last game and tomorrow’s start of the championship series, the Nuggets will have been off for ten days. That, he said, is something that could either work for or against a team.
“I don’t really like the idea of laying off that long,” he said. “Players get in a rhythm,” as, perhaps Boston and Miami are in right now. But time off also gives players “a chance to get well,” from aches and pains. “That could serve them well.”
Another member of that ABA team was a very young Gus Gerard who played the game fast and loose, underrated by all except those he drove past, shot over or simply owned on the court. He was a lighter version of the team’s defensive stopper, Jones.
Gerard also played on the ’76 Nuggets team that, in the old ABA, by virtue of owning the best record in the league played and won against a team of ABA All Stars. The game was played in Denver. It was also the first time an All-Star Game featured a ‘slam dunk’ contest. Dr. J. won it with his unforgettable dunk in which he took off from the foul line. While David Thompson won the game’s MVP award, a relatively unknown Gerard did get a single vote.
Gerard follows the Nuggets from his home in Virginia and said in a Facebook chat, “I’m all in on the Nuggets. They’re the best team…they should win.”
Williams, also an ABA All-Star and member of the last great Nuggets team, is bullish on the Nuggets chances. Playing the teams they’ve played to get to this point, Williams believes, has tested this team’s mettle. “They’ve showed they’re a championship team.”
