June 23, 2023 By: Woody Paige

Woody Paige: Denver could be hosting another championship parade (or two) next year

The Nuggets and Denver were the mile highest and rising at the Parade of Champions on Thursday, June 15.

“This one’s for you,’’ MVP Nikola Jokic simply shouted to the multitude packed in Civic Center Park as the Gold Dome atop the State Capitol beamed bright and brilliant in the mid-day sun. The backdrop behind City Hall was snowy Rocky Top.

The Nuggets are the best in basketball.

From Western Conference No. 1 seed to World Championship No. 1. It was the 2022-23 Gold Rush. As for this week, Colorado possessed both the standing National Hockey League and National Basketball Association champions.

From Feb. 9, 2016, to June 30, 2022, to June 15, 2023, world championship parades in three sports leagues have been held in downtown Denver.

Note to other teams from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean: POUND SAND! The Avalanche and the Nuggets could have more big parades with 64 trombones.

Denver has won 15 myriad professional championships in a half century: Denver Racquets, 1974, World Team Tennis; Colorado Avalanche, 1996, 2001, 2022, NHL; Denver Broncos, 1997, 1998, 2015, NFL; Colorado Crush, 2005, Arena Football League; Colorado Mammoth, 2006, 2022, National Lacrosse League; Denver Outlaws, 2014, 2016, 2018, Major League Lacrosse; Colorado Rapids, 2010, Major League Soccer; Denver Nuggets, NBA, 2023.

Only the Rockies (1993-2023) are without, and no hope is in sight soon.

The Nuggets unveiled two slogans Thursday. They wore T-shirts – although most of the players were doffing them – that declared defiantly:

WE – Came – WE – Saw – WE – Conquered.

In Latin, the translation is Venerunt, Viderunt, (Miami) Vicerunt.

The other refrain, offered by coach Michael Malone from the podium, was “We want two.” … Replication, Recurrence, Reiteration.

Guess what, sports fans. Both the Nuggets and the Avalanche already have been installed by the wise guys in Vegas as favorites in the NBA and the NHL next season. The Nugs are plus-400 and the Avs plus-800. Could they do it in the same season? The Nuggets have earned the honor of being the second game of an NBA doubleheader on Oct. 24, opening night of the regular season. They will raise the championship banner for the first time in 48 seasons. The NHL schedule has not been released yet, but the Avalanche will start in mid-October.

Is it possible that the Broncos could compete for the championship again, too?

I have witnessed seven big sports parades down 17th Avenue, and Thursday’s was among the most energized, but not the largest gathering ever among the hundreds of thousands revelers. (The Broncos of Super Bowl 50 remain the most massive. And Malone creatively claimed a half million attended this one.)

Unfortunately, though, an accident and another shooting occurred. The crowd became chaotic toward the end when people surrounded the firetruck (No. 15 MVP) carrying Jokic and Jamal Murray, with team owner Stan Kroenke between them). The turning firetruck ran over a police officer, and he was rushed to the hospital with severe leg injuries that would require surgery. He was in serious and stable condition later in the day. Shortly after the parade, a nearby unrelated act of violence resulted in two wounded people. The festivities in LoDo on Monday night after the Nuggets’ fourth and clinching victory were marred by a mass shooting that injured 10 persons, most innocent bystanders. All three incidents were tragic.

The pomp parade procession from the train station was comprised of 40 vehicles (mostly firetrucks) and stretched down 17th where the horde was 15 deep in some spots, and workers in buildings along the route sat in or stared from windows. The parade passed the past (the Brown Palace and old banks transformed into new hotels) and the future (with construction cranes above).

Several of the elder and younger Nuggets got off the firetrucks to meet and greet their fans along the street, and rookie Christian Braun was wearing a wrestling title-type belt around his mid-section. The players, their wives and girlfriends, coaches and Nuggets staffers enjoyed adult beverages, just as the witnesses did. Expensive champagne flowed. Jamal Murray smoked a cigar, incessantly grinned and signed every cap and jersey thrown from Nuggets Nation, and Jokic embraced his young daughter Ognjena, who had become the princess of the playoffs, and turned to wave at everyone. However, a beer can struck Jokic’s wife Natalija. Stupid people cannot handle shiny new things.

The Joker had said at the conclusion of The Finals he wanted to go home to Sombor, Serbia. But, with a laugh, acknowledged he certainly was having a ball during the parade.

Introductions, speeches, confetti and players’ merriment at City Hall climaxed another day of sports celebration days for our dusty old Titletown.

The Nuggets won one.