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Philly's trash becomes Denver's gold nugget
By Geof Wollerman
gwollerm@mscd.edu

Thank you to the basketball gods for ridding the Nuggets of Andre Miller and delivering unto us Allen Iverson. Thank you. My prayers have been answered. I am a basketball fan once again.

The last time I followed hoops with any real interest or conviction, Clyde Drexler was one of the league’s top scorers, Michael Jordan was the king of the court, and Charles Barkley and Dennis Rodman were the bad boys of the league. For me it was the heyday of the NBA.

Then came the lockout. For months, my excitement for America’s sport withered away until the very vernacular of the game grew dumb upon my tongue. What was there, I asked myself, but basketball? A sport on the verge of becoming a universal cult had rapidly become just another sport. A world I had thought of as safe had been upended. I stopped watching games and stopped caring about the playoffs. As a sick joke, I became a Nuggets fan by name.

It would take the miraculous appearance of a 5-foot-11-inch guard from Philadelphia to get me excited about basketball again.

In his first four and a half hours of play with the Nuggets, Iverson averaged 28.8 points per game and had 53 assists. On Dec. 28 he scored 44 points against Seattle. He may have been the wrong “answer” for Philadelphia, but Iverson might be the variable that can help Denver solve its elusive championship equation.

Unfortunately, because of the Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith suspensions, the fortuitous holiday deal has yet to come to full fruition. But as a native I can say with confidence that Nuggets fans will wait.

I’m not saying that Iverson is the best player in the league. And I would be the first to state that the whole Nuggets roster is a little rough around the edges. But the team’s got heart.

They’re playing some solid ball when they want to, as they were long before Iverson’s arrival. But with the addition of Iverson, this year’s squad has the potential to be the best in Nuggets history and make a legitimate bid for the playoffs.

Of course, the Nuggets have always had “potential.” I know I’m falling into the classic Nuggets-fan complex in which I build up all my hopes only to see them crushed and see brilliance where there is only banality. But I can’t help it. The Nuggets deserve some love.

Lately, when I watch the Nuggets on TV – if I blur my eyes hard enough – for the first time in years, I feel like basketball might be on the verge of something great again. So here’s to the team winning the fourth quarter in ’07, because I realize we’re up now, but it’s only the third quarter and I am watching the Denver Nuggets.