Mile High Sports

Denver Nuggets fans are letting their team down

MHS Staff
Denver Nuggets fans

Nuggets Nation needs to step up.

After three games at the Pepsi Center, the Denver Nuggets currently boast the league’s worst attendance (and it’s not close), with an average of 12,239 a game. And honestly, that’s being generous.

Whether you’ve been at the Pepsi Center or watching from home (much more likely), it’s pretty clear that there aren’t more than six or seven thousand Denver Nuggets fans in the stands at any given moment, which may shed some light on why the team has seemingly been playing better on the road to start the season.

And sure, we can all claim that it’s the Nuggets’ fault that nobody is going to their games; that they are the ones who fired the reigning Coach of the Year and let our GM walk to Toronto, the ones who hired Brian Shaw and oversaw one of the most dysfunctional seasons in franchise history. That’s all fair. And if you want to play that card, that’s your prerogative.

But if that’s the case, I guess it’s time we start calling ourselves fair-weather fans. The Nuggets have had two losing seasons in their last 12, and suddenly we turn into the worst fanbase in the NBA? The 76ers have better attendance, and that franchise has actively been trying to lose for half a decade!

Things need to change. Here are three reasons why you should be going to the Pepsi Center this season.

Emmanuel Mudiay

How can you not want to see Emmanuel Mudiay kickstart his career in Denver? Don’t you want to say you were there to see the Nuggets’ next great superstar suit up during his first season?

I mean, yeah, maybe placing the superstar label on the kid this early is a little premature, but it’s not out of the question. The kid needs refinement, but he’s got a full toolbox.

On offense, after having his shooting criticized coming into the draft, Mudiay is shooting 37 percent from three on nearly five attempts per game, and making shots like this when it really matters:

And on the other side of the floor, he’s doing things like this:

If you’re not excited for Mudiay and his future, than you must not like basketball.

Get down to the Pepsi Center, and watch the 19-year-old point guard put on a show.

Rocky

Do you have children? A clueless significant other? A need for backwards half-court shots?

Then do I have the thing for you!

Have you ever seen someone do a backflip off a ladder while dunking a basketball? Rocky.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoJRyw5sc2k

You ever seen a man in a mountain lion suit steal someone’s shoes and chuck them into the crowed? Rocky.

How about watching a mascot lay out a small child? Rocky.

He may just be the timeout entertainment, but Rocky is well worth the price of admission.

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Denver Fans are better than this

Listen, if the Nuggets were only filling 64 percent of their stadium, eight percent lower than any other franchise, 70 games into a throwaway season, I’d get it. But we’re only seven games in, and at 3-4, the Nuggets season is anything but a throwaway.

So why aren’t the fans going to games? They’re going to everything else. Both the Rockies and Avalanche have been just as disappointing in recent years, and yet the Avs (22nd) and Rockies (14th) both draw higher attendance.

Is Denver just not a basketball town?

I don’t think that’s it. I think Denver Nuggets fans got complacent during the George Karl era — I think they got used to success — and I think they don’t know how to get themselves back into the groove.

But let me tell you this: The Nuggets are building a very entertaining product down at the Pepsi Center — even if it’s not coming along as quickly as we’d like — and the city of Denver is really missing out.

So for all you Colorado sports fans out there who have been looking for a reason to jump back on board the Nuggets, stop looking and do what you do best: Be a fan.

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