You’d better leave for the parade right now. It might already be too late, in fact. Downtown is going to be so crowded, it’ll be as if actual gold nuggets had been strewn on the streets.
The Denver Nuggets have richly earned their victory parade, stomping team critics (146-0) and the rest of the NBA (16-4) on the way to the franchise’s first championship after 47 fantastic but futile years. But following a brutal Game 5 victory in Ball Arena Monday night — ouch! yay! — that losing stuff is over. We won!
So, Thursday at around 10 a.m., the Denver Nuggets will roll out of Union Station, proceed uptown along 17th Street, hang a right on Broadway, and around noon, stop for speeches in Civic Center park. And they’re doing it all for you, Nuggets fans.
Let me introduce you to a few of your fellow parade-goers, so you won’t be shocked when they step on your toes, invade your personal space, shout spittle into your face and otherwise join you in communing with greatness.
The guy in full Nuggets regalia who still lives with his mom.
The long-time Nuggets fan who will engage you in remembrances of Alex English.
Your girlfriend, who has other things on her mind.
Dozens of Jokic superfans in face paint, each of whom thought it was their original idea to dress up this way.
A vendor who will sell you ugly crap you’ll never wear again.
Me, and 200,000 other new Coloradans, who suddenly feel like we truly belong here for the first time.
Odd, and strangely beautiful, how a team led by a Serbian and Canadian can make us one, for as long as the championship glow lasts. Thanks, Nikola. Thanks, Jamal. Thanks, Nuggets.
