June 12, 2023
Nikola Jokic with the Finals MVP trophy
There is no "right"answer to this, so a heated argument
would be artificial provocation.
But in the wake
of the Nuggets' first-ever NBA title, it's interesting to ponder and make individual choices about the impact of Denver's
seven championships.
Here are mine:
1, Broncos
1997 season, Super Bowl XXXII.
After progressing from bedraggled
to a four-time Super Bowl loser, the Broncos finally broke through, beating the Packers in San Diego.
2, Nuggets
2023.
The championship wait was over -- after 47 years
in the NBA and longer if you count the Rockets/Nuggets' days in the ABA.
3, Avalanche 1996.
This was tricky.
In Denver's second chance in the NHL, the agonizing wait for fans to celebrate a Stanley Cup champonship was several months,
not years. But it was Denver's first championship -- and there can be only one first.
4, Avalanche 2001.
The only time the Avs clinched and celebrated at home, beating New Jersey (the former Colorado Rockies) in Game 7
of the Final. And Joe Sakic made the Stanley Cup handoff to Ray Bourque. This was pre-salary cap and the Avs' best team, but
they pulled it off with Peter Forsberg missing the final two rounds after his scary spleen injury.
5 Broncos
2015, Super Bowl 50.
Von Miller harrassing Cam Newton
always will be memorable. And Peyton Manning going out in style.
6, Broncos 1998, Super Bowl XXXIII.
It's tough to repeat and this was John Elway's last game, too, so it's tempting to
have this higher. But in terms of impact, the Broncos' consituency had been there and done that only a year earlier.
7, Avalanche 2022.
Denver had matured as a hockey market and again the Avalanche had two of the best players
in the world -- this time, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar. As the GM, Sakic led the rebuild after the historically awful
2016-17. But something has to be seventh.
ADDENDUM: Among
the early reaction to this, several readers -- while acknowledging this was about Denver's championship teams -- brought up
the 1977 Broncos and the 2007 Rockies. They pointed out that both teams galvanized Colorado, perhaps to an extent surpassing
one or more of those seven championship teams.
That's an arguable point.
In fact,
I actually wrote '77: Denver, the
Broncos, and a Coming of Age because I believed
that team was monumental in Denver's transformation from an outpost with an inferiority complex to a major-league market.
And Rocktober was darned near the damndest thing I've ever
seen in sports.
The Broncos
lost Super Bowl XII to the Cowboys, but that was an an anticlimax after a kismet season and the AFC championship game victory
over the Raiders in Denver.
The Rockies' World Series loss to the Red Sox? After the astounding Rocktober run, that was anticlimactic, too. It all was
so memorable because it was so unexpected.
So I'll continue to join in any salute to those near-championship teams. But they don't make that
championship list.
