By Lori Hanson
As many of you know by now I’m a huge sports fan. Living in Denver for 16 years (’90-’06)was interesting because it seemed Denver teams never get ANY respect. I was there when John Elway led the Bronco’s to their first Superbowl win and the next. And I was there when the Av’s (Colorado Avalanche) came to town and won the Stanley Cup their first year. I went to the parade downtown to enjoy the celebration. And the Rockies started out pretty good when Coors Field first opened, but that was a long time ago. And those appeared to be brief flashes of brilliance.
But the mention of the Denver Nuggets was always cause for laughter in the nineties. Part of my job in entertaining clients was using tickets we had to the Pepsi Can (Center). I would call a client and say, “Hey, do you want to go to the Nuggets game? Um, we can drink…” Or we went to watch the other teams who came to town. I distinctly remember the shift when Carmelo Anthony came to town. Everyone felt the tingle of hope. The promise that maybe, just maybe the Nuggets could become something. Melo was young and had a few things to learn. We went through a couple of coaches. When George Karl first came to town, again their was renewed optimism that now we were set. Then we got K-Mart, okay, now this is it we’re on our way. But they never made it out of the first round. I had left by the time AI (Allen Iverson) came to town, but initially it seemed again like maybe they had the winning number. Wrong again.
I’ll be the first to tell you I was pissed when they cut Marcus Camby last summer. I mean what were they thinking? He was defensive player of the year and had been healthy. I didn’t understand it. Then there was the shift with AI when he apparently decided he couldn’t win with Denver and trade happened. We got Chauncy and AI went to Detroit where he could better his chances of being with a playoff caliber team. And Chauncy was home in Denver.
I watched whenever I could from Southern California which until the playoffs wasn’t very often. But things were different once Chauncy came to town. The team was different, yet as usual nobody seemed to give any credit to Denver…until now.
The Denver Nuggets have played incredibly well in the playoffs. Convincingly, with promise and improving in every game. I noticed part-time comedian Charles Barkley soften a bit in his comments on TNT, but still couldn’t give Denver the nod. But today I found an article that made me smile from ear to ear.
“Denver and Cleveland are the two best teams I’ve seen in the playoffs,” TNT analyst Charles Barkley said this week. “I’m going to stick with my pick, I think the Denver Nuggets are going to the finals. The Lakers have been too inconsistent.”
Plenty are jumping off the Los Angeles bandwagon right along with him. Nobody is questioning the Lakers talent, just their desire and ability to demonstrate it on a nightly basis.
“We’ve seen the Lakers, they are the most skilled team in basketball, probably the best personnel from 1-12, and they know it and they are arrogant about it,” said Barkley’s partner, Kenny Smith. “Because they are arrogant, they get complacent.”
Source: Will LA put it together or is Denver the west’s best? on Yahoo news.
So not only Sir Charles, but also Kenny are finally giving accolades and notice to the Nuggets. Funny, living here in So Cal, land of the Lakers there is a ton of arrogance exuding from the fans and they laugh out load when I say I’m a Nuggets fan. This will be fun to watch!
Thanks Charles and Kenny for noticing and being objective on behalf of Denver. Go Nuggets!!
P.S. And Chuck keep up the golf lessons, you are getting better and it’s such great entertainment.
Amusement for a Sunday.
©2009
