Woody Paige: At last, the Nuggets are NBA champions
The Nuggets are Golden.
The sun will rise in the West over the Rocky Mountains Tuesday morning, and nobody will notice because the Nuggets won their first NBA championship Monday night.
On Oct. 29, 1949, the original Denver Nuggets played in the historic opening game of the National Basketball League, losing to the Tri-Cities Blackhawks in Moline, Ill., 83-76. On June 12, 2023, in the last game of the NBA postseason, the Denver Nuggets overcame the Miami Heat for a 94-89 victory, and hysteria, celebrations and fireworks erupted throughout Colorado.
Finally.
Our Dusty Old Cowtown has become Title Town again.
Prior to Game 5 of the NBA Finals, with the Nuggets up in the series 3-1, coach Michael Malone said: “We haven’t won a damn thing.’’ Well, now he can say: “We won the grand, wham, bam, dam thing.’’
After being behind for a majority of the game, on a night that could have turned out dark and stormy, the Nuggets trailed the Heat 89-88 with 1:58 remaining when Jimmy Butler made two free throws.
Jamal Murray then missed a jumper, but supersub Bruce Brown got the offensive rebound and scored to put the Nuggets up for good, better and best. The Heat didn’t tie or go back ahead in the Finals final one and a half minutes.
Butler, who had scored 13 consecutive points for the Heat, threw a terrible pass that was stolen by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope with, and the Heat were forced to foul him with only 24.1 seconds left. The Nuggets had been awful at the line during the game, But Caldwell-Pope made both for a 92-89 lead.
Butler was errant on a three-point attempt with 17 seconds showing; Brown pulled down another rebound and was fouled, and he, too, converted both free throws. When Kyle Lowery clanked on a 28-footer, and Caldwell-Pope secured the basketball, it was all over – except for the shouting and screaming of 19,520 Nuggets loyalists crammed into Ball Arena.
No back to the beach. The Nuggets finished with what’s called a gentleman’s sweep 4-1 after they broomed the Lakers 4-0 after they had defeated the Timberwolves in five and the Suns in 6. Denver won 16 postseason games, were 10-1 at home and won two games in Los Angeles, one in Phoenix, one in Minneapolis and two in Miami.
The Nuggets are complete champions.
And they aren’t going away any time soon. All five Nuggets starters are under contract next season, and rookie Chris Brawn is back; Jeff Green wants to return, and Brown could use the player’s option in his contract to stay in Denver.
This championship was for everyone from David Thompson, who was in the arena Monday, to Dan Issel to Carmelo Anthony to Alex English to Chauncey Billups to everyone who has played for the Nuggets since the beginning – in 1949-50 when the Nuggets were in the first season of the NBA (before being booted), the two seasons in the National Basketball League, the years in the ABA (1967-1976) and their 47 seasons in the NBA the second time around.
But it’s mostly for Jokic and Jamal, KCP, AG (Aaron Gordon) and MPJ (Michael Porter Jr.), who carried the Nuggets in the first half when nobody else did or could.
It’s for Brown, Green and Braun and all the other Nuggets who rarely played in the playoffs.
It’s for Malone, and it’s for Calvin Booth in his first season as general manager, and it’s for owner Stan Kroenke and son Josh Kroenke, who love basketball most of all their franchises.
The Sensation from Sombor, Serbia, was the MVP of course and is the greatest player in the sport. The Joker brought back the Nuggets, just as he has all during the regular season and the postseason. “We are not in for ourselves; we are in it for the guy next to us,’’ Jokic said after getting, appropriately, the Bill Russell Trophy.
The Nuggets are a team, and now the No. 1 team in the NBA at last.
The final final game was a grind. Except for a 12-0 run in the first quarter the Nuggets were completely out-everythinged by the Heat. The Nuggets couldn’t make three-pointers or free throws. They committed 10 turnovers. Gordon was charged with three fouls and played only seven minutes. Jokic and Murray each were called for two violations and sat for six and five minutes, and the Nuggets were out of sync. They trailed 51-44 at the half, but they proved ultimately to be as gold as the dome on the State Capitol.
Hallelujah Hoops. The Nuggets win.
Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone kisses the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy after a 94-89 win over the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday, June 12, 2023, at Ball Arena in Denver. (Timothy Hurst/Denver Gazette)
Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) and head coach Michael Malone reacts as Murray holds the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy after a 94-89 win over the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday, June 12, 2023, at Ball Arena in Denver. (Timothy Hurst/Denver Gazette)
Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) cradles the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy after a 94-89 win over the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday, June 12, 2023, at Ball Arena in Denver. (Timothy Hurst/Denver Gazette)
