From Impossible to Unforgettable: The Denver Nuggets Journey to NBA Championship Glory

I never thought this day would happen, but it did.

The Denver Nuggets are NBA Champions, and nothing can change that.

I grew up in Denver. I remember the Avs winning the city’s first championship in 1997. I’ll never forget the Broncos beating the Packers in Super Bowl 32 and then running it back the next year with a repeat in Super Bowl 33. I also watched the Colorado Crush win an Arena Bowl, the Colorado Rapids win an MLS Cup, and can remember the lacrosse championships from the Outlaws and Mammoth. They were all fun.

When the Broncos won Super Bowl 50, it was magic and the first game I ever watched with my wife. Last year’s title run for the Avs was all kinds of emotional because I got to experience it as a Dad as I watched the games with my son.

With all of that said, nothing tops last night and watching the Nuggets win their first championship. Nothing even comes close to that for me. Now, I’ve seen it all, and there is nothing left to see — the Denver Nuggets did something I never expected, let alone dreamed they would do; they won the NBA Finals and stand on top of the professional basketball mountain as champions of the world. I hope I never forget this feeling.

If you grew up in Denver during the late ’90s and ’00s, you know this as well as I do — it wasn’t cool to be a Nuggets fan. I became one anyway. I never thought they were going to win a championship. I stayed a fan anyway.

Throughout the years, I’ve seen so many players come and go. Some of my favorites were Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Robert Pack, LaPhonso Ellis, Antonio McDyess, JR Smith, Chris “Birdman” Andersen, and Ty Lawson.

I thought it would never get better than Dikembe Mutumbo lifting the basketball while lying down on the ground after the Nuggets became the first 8 seed to beat a 1 seed when they upset the Seattle SuperSonics.

I’ll never forget the agony of watching the Nuggets suddenly forget how to inbound the basketball and, as a result, lose the Western Conference Finals in 2009. So close, but so far away.

Then came the Melo trade, and more first-round playoff exits. It all bottomed out during the Brian Shaw era, and then the luck changed forever on June 26, 2014, during a Taco Bell commercial when the Nuggets drafted a Center from Sombor, Serbia named Nikola Jokic with the 41st pick.

A few months later, I landed my dream job — I became a Nuggets writer for BSN Denver (now DNVR). That season with Coach Michael Malone and a rookie Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets went 33–49. I didn’t know it then, but that was the beginning of the greatest era in Denver Nuggets history.

A year later, they picked Jamal Murray with the 9th pick in the NBA Draft.

Over the next few seasons, I watched the Nuggets become a playoff team. It felt like magic when the Nuggets won their first-ever Game 7 and beat the San Antonio Spurs. A few weeks later, the feeling was reversed when the Blazers came back to beat the Nuggets in Game 7 at Pepsi Center.

Next came the magical 2020 playoff run in the NBA Bubble where they came back from 3–1 series deficits against the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers. Of course, the Lakers had to go and ruin it all in the Western Conference Finals. Another “so close” moment in a never-ending line of them.

It seemed that luck was finally going to change when the Nuggets traded for Aaron Gordon in March of 2021 — he was the missing piece that could propel the Nuggets from “good” to “great,” and then Jamal Murray tore his ACL. A gut punch that reminded Nuggets fans we couldn’t have nice things.

Last year seemed like a lost season with the injuries to Jamal and MPJ. Yes, Jokic was clearly becoming the greatest player in the NBA, but deep down, any fan knew that the team had no shot at a deep playoff run because of the injuries. Sure enough, the Warriors beat the Nuggets in 5 games. Ugh.

And then this season happened. Early on, it was obvious the Nuggets were the best team in the Western Conference. This team wrote basketball poetry each night as they played an unselfish and team-first style of ball. They were different, but deep down I was afraid to let myself believe. I mean, it’s the Nuggets — they were just going to rip my heart out again, right?

I flew back home for Round 1, Game 1 against the Timberwolves. I went with my dad. Ball Arena was an electric factory that night as the Nuggets steamrolled Minnesota. Deep down, I was starting to believe the impossible could happen, and that absolutely terrified me after Denver won the series 4–1.

Next up was KD, Devin Booker, and the Suns. I was so excited after the Nuggets went up 2–0, and then I was equally bummed out after Phoenix made it 2–2. I prepared myself for the inevitable — the Nuggets could lose the series… except they didn’t. Denver stormed back in Game 5 and then blew out Phoenix on their home floor to close out the series in Game 6.

The reward was getting to face the big bad Lakers and LeBron James. Of course, it was going to be the Lakers. It had to be the Lakers, who were the source of so much sadness for Nuggets fans over the years. But these weren’t the same old Nuggets. Not even close. These were the dudes who were going to rewrite the franchise’s narrative forever. The series was never really close, despite what the national media claimed, as Denver swept Los Angeles to make the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. It turns out that dreams do come true, my friends.

At this point, I realized that I was way too emotionally invested in something I had no control over, but that’s the thing about sports — for a fortunate few, it teaches you how to enjoy the story and not control it. So many years of rooting for the Nuggets without expecting any kind of emotional giveback taught me so much about life, and I didn’t even know it.

When the Nuggets won Game 1, I began to believe that the impossible might actually be possible. Then the fourth quarter of Game 2 happened, which plunged me into despair that I didn’t know I was capable of still experiencing from sports at this age in life. And then Game 3 happened — Murray and Jokic willed them to victory with the help of Christian Braun. Followed by the ultimate step-up game from Aaron Gordon and Bruce Brown that led the Nuggets to victory in Game 4.

I had to fly back to Denver for Game 5. My wife understood why I had to be in the Mile High City. She doesn’t get my fandom, but she supports it.

Yesterday, I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning. All day was leading up to 6:30 p.m. Mountain and Game 5’s tip-off. I replayed so many memories; games I watched with my Grandpa, listening to Koz call games on the radio when I was supposed to be asleep as a kid, going to games at McNichols and Pepsi Center, and then getting to cover the Nuggets training camp for DNVR in September 2016. It was all leading up to this moment, the moment you hope for as a sports fan — getting to watch your team win the whole darn thing.

I was up and down with each play of the game last night. My high school buddies, thankfully, put up with me. I think at one point my mom was worried about my well-being as I sat on the floor in disbelief at the officiating. The Nuggets were surviving everything working against them. Slowly, they began to chip away, and eventually, they took control of the game. My stepdad went across the street to get a bottle of champagne. I was worried it was somehow a jinx, as if I had any control over any of this.

When the Nuggets went up 90–89 on the Bruce Brown put-back with 1:31 to play, I could barely watch the game. Then KCP stole that pass and made those free throws to put them up 92–89. When that three-pointer from Jimmy Butler was missed and the Nuggets snagged the rebound, I started to cry. Almost three decades of emotion watching a team I never thought would win a championship came up in an out of body experience.

I don’t fully remember what happened next, just that the Nuggets won the game. I hugged people that I’ve known my whole life and people I’ll never know. I got calls and texts from people I haven’t talked to in years — all with a familiar message “you’re the biggest Nuggets fan I know, congrats” and then I drank champagne. It was surreal. A dream come true that feels like a dream.

The Denver Nuggets won the NBA Championship. It felt like I won it too.