June 12, 2023: The Denver Nuggets Finally Win a Title

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

June 12, 2023: After 47 seasons in the NBA, and 9 seasons before that in the American Basketball Association, the Denver Nuggets finally win a league championship.

The Nuggets were founded with the ABA in 1967. In 1976, they reached the Finals, but lost to the New York Nets. Those two teams, along with the Indiana Pacers and the San Antonio Spurs, were then invited into the NBA. They became a perennial Playoff team, but never a great team: They reached the Western Conference Finals in 1986 and 2009, and had a famous 8th seed over 1st seed upset of the Seattle SuperSonics in 1994, but they never made a serious threat to take the overall Championship.

In 2015, Michael Malone was named head coach, after having been head coach of the Sacramento Kings and assisting at 4 other NBA teams. He inherited Serbian center Nikola Jokić, a.k.a. "Joker." He went on to be named the NBA's Most Valuable Player in 2021 and 2022. In 2016, the Nuggets drafted Kentucky guard Jamal Murray. In 2019, having picked up forward Michael Porter Jr., the Nuggets won the Northwest Division, and reached the Conference Semifinals. In 2020, they won the Division again, and reached the Conference Finals.

Calvin Booth, a center who spent 10 years in the NBA, was named general manager. In 2021, he picked up center JaVale McGee, who had won titles with Steph Curry's Golden State Warriors and LeBron James' Los Angeles Lakers. They reached the Conference Semifinals. In 2022, with the addition of forward Aaron Gordon, they got knocked out in the 1st Round. It began to look like the Nuggets were victims of a tough Western Conference.

Before the next season, Booth picked up guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who had played with LeBron and McGee on the 2020 NBA Champion Lakers; and forward Bruce Brown. They went 53-29, winning the Division, then beat the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Playoffs, then the Phoenix Suns, and then swept LeBron and the Lakers in 4 straight, reaching the NBA Finals for the 1st time in franchise history.

They faced the Miami Heat.  in the NBA Finals. After winning titles with Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal in 2006, and with Wade and LeBron in 2012 and '13, the Heat had rebuilt. With title-winning coach Erik Spoelstra still running them, and the legendary Pat Riley still as team president, they reached the Finals in 2020 but lost to the Lakers, and the Eastern Conference Finals in 2022 but lost to the Boston Celtics.

They had experience: Haslem had been on all 3 Heat title teams, and Kevin Love had been on the 2016 NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers with LeBron. They had star power: Bam Adebayo had made his 2nd NBA All-Star Game, Jimmy Butler had been in 6, Love had been in 5, and Victor Oladipo had been in 2. (UPDATE: Tyler Herro had already been recognized as a star, but his 1st All-Star Game was yet to come. He missed the 2023 Playoffs due to injury.) They also had some confusion: They had their own Serbian star, the similarly-named Nikola Jović.

The Nuggets won Game 1 at the Ball Arena in Denver, 104-93. But, despite Jokić scoring 41 points, the Heat took Game 2, 111-108, to gain a road split. It was the 3rd time in that year's Playoffs that Jokić had scored 40 or more in a game, and the Nuggets had lost them all. It looked like they were in trouble.

The action shifted to the Kasey Center in Miami, and, between them, Jokić and Murray took over. The former scored 32 points, with 21 rebounds (18 on defense) and 10 assists; the latter scored 34, with 10 rebounds and 10 assists, plus a steal. It was the 1st time in NBA history -- regular season or postseason -- that a pair of teammates had each recorded a triple-double with at least 30 points in the same game. The Nuggets won, 109-94.

They also won Game 4 in Miami, 108-95. Game 5 was back in Denver, and the Heat put up a fight. They led 24-22 after the 1st quarter, and 51-44 at the half. The Nuggets' shooting was cold. But in the 2nd half, their got hot, and the Heat's, ironically, went cold. A 26-20 3rd quarter and a 24-18 4th quarter gave the Nuggets a 94-89 win, and their 1st World Championship.

Jokić averaged 30 points, 13.5 rebounds, and 9.5 assists throughout the Playoffs, becoming the 1st player in NBA history to lead the league in points (600), rebounds (269), and assists (190) in a single postseason. Wilt Chamberlain had never done that. Nor had Bill Russell, nor Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, nor Shaq, nor LeBron, nor Tim Duncan, nor any other big man, nor any not-as-big man like Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. He was named the Finals' MVP.

The Colorado Avalanche -- like the Nuggets, and the NFL's Los Angeles Rams, and soccer's Colorado Rapids and Arsenal F.C. -- had won the Stanley Cup the year before. This made Denver the 1st city ever to simultaneously hold the Championships of the NBA and NHL. Despite their many titles, it had never happened for New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago or Los Angeles. But Denver held both titles -- but for only 1 day.

UPDATE: Jokić was named NBA MVP again in 2024. He would likely join the Nuggets' team Hall of Fame, except that, for the moment, they don't have one.

But they do retire numbers. From their ABA years, they have retired 33 for forward David Thompson, 40 for forward Byron Beck, and 44 for center Dan Issel. From the 1980s, they have honored Issel; 2, for forward Alex English; 12, for guard Lafayette "Fat" Lever, and head coach Doug Moe, with a banner with his number of coaching wins on it, 432. From the 1990s, they have retired 55 for center Dikembe Mutombo.

Beck, Issel, Thompson, English and Moe have been elected to the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. So have 1970s guards Chuck Williams and Ralph Simpson, 1980s guard Bill Hanzlik, 1980s forward Glen Gondrezick, 2000s guard Chauncey Billups (mainly because he was a Denver native, having starred for other teams), longtime general manager Carl Scheer, and longtime trainer Robert "Chopper" Travaglini.

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June 12, 2023 was a Monday. Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup was won the following night, by the Vegas Golden Knights over the Florida Panthers.

And these 8 Major League Baseball games were played, with 4 of them going to extra innings:

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. The Rockies scored 2 runs in the top of the 10th inning, on a bases-loaded walk by Randal Grichuk, and an error with Nolan Jones at bat. The Red Sox could only come back with 1 in the bottom of the 10th.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-5 at Comerica Park in Detroit. Spencer Torkelson singled Andy Ibáñez home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Torkelson, filling in for the injured Miguel Cabrera, hit like him, going 3-for-6 with a home run and 3 RBIs.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-4 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Jonathan India grounded into a fielder's choice that scored TJ Friedl with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 9-6 at Globe Life Field in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. The Angels scored 4 runs in the top of the 12th, on home runs by Shohei Ohtani and Chad Wallach. The Rangers could only pull 1 run back in the bottom of the 12th.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-8 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 4-3 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Miami Heat, 8-1 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.