I’m sitting here at a coffee shop, trying to think of how to start this piece about the Nuggets. Just how can I capture this utter embarrassment? And then, I spotted this fellow I know, a die-hard Nuggets fan, who came up to me and summed it up in six words:
“It’s not even fun to watch.”
It’s not. A team with all these supposed fan favorites — the speedy Ty Lawson, the “Manimal” Kenneth Faried, the supposedly improved Arron Afflalo — makes you want to change the channel (or re-watch ” .”) Just over two weeks into the season and there’s little cohesion, little inspiration, little hope.
I’ve always said, the ways you can win in the modern NBA are either being a huge market franchise that attracts elite free agents or completely starting over with young, affordable draft picks and with money to spend. Well, JaVale McGee notwithstanding, the Nuggets already have good contracts on the books. But these guys are doing so poorly that Denver is on pace to get a high lottery pick, almost accidentally (they entered the season talking about winning their division.)
I guffawed (OK, chortled) at this the Nuggets posted last night during their 130-113 loss to Portland, which dropped the Nuggets to 1-6. It’s a cool pic, showing three Denver defenders surrounding a Portland player. Well, it opened the proverbial virtual floodgates, and as of 10:54 a.m. on Thursday, there were 134 comments, most similar to these samples:
jakebparks: “NO DEFENSE WHAT SO EVER! PORTLAND SCORED 84 POINTS BY HALFTIME!! 84! ARE YOU KIDDING ME. WAY TO GO!”
joshdominguez_: “Stop posting these pic / message after every pathetic loss like they did something good @denvernuggets. 1-6.”
cmanh21: “Fire shaw! Start the trend #fireshaw”
This stat blew my mind: Portland’s 130 points versus Denver on Wednesday was the second-most points scored in the NBA this season, behind Sacramento’s 131, which came against Denver on Nov. 5.
It was good to see Lawson have a big statistical night against Portland at Pepsi Center, but I still have wonder why last week he pulled himself from the game against Cleveland less than an hour before tipoff. The expressed reason was a sore ankle. Was he truly hurt and couldn’t play? Was he nervous about the possible embarrassment on national TV? I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. I also wonder how many other players would have played through the pain, or at least tried to play.
CHEW ON THIS
* It’s throwback Thursday (#tbt), so I figured I’d post my favorite throwback Youtube ever. It’s a live clubhouse interview from the local news in St. Louis in 1987, when the Cardinals won the division — one particular player behaved like .
* Speaking of “Frank The Tank” or “Big Daddy Fupps” or whatever nickname Frank Kaminsky goes by this particular week. … The Wisconsin superstar forward is a goofball, and he appears in this silly YouTube doing a dance-off to “Shake It Off.” Incidentally, I’ve proclaimed that the talking part of that Taylor Swift part, with the “thiiiiis siiiick beaaat,” is the worst 20 seconds in the history of music. Anyway, here’s the possible :
* Everyone loves hastags #everyoneloveshashtags. Here’s one folks are doing in bad NBA cities: #tankforfrank. Maybe we’ll start seeing this from Nuggets tweeters soon.
* LeBron James said he won’t allow his , because the sport is too dangerous and violent. Pretty cool he took this stand, knowing all the sponsors he works with. Makes you wonder, what if every Denver Broncos player said the same thing, would it make any difference? My quick prediction, football will never go away, but in 20 years, the numbers in youth football will greatly dwindle.
* Happy birthday to Whoopi Goldberg, my favorite Goldberg besides .
Benjamin Hochman: bhochman@denverpost.com or
