John Leyba, The Denver Post)
Three empty cocktail glasses begged for attention, as the sidewalks rolled up and called it a night in Indianapolis. But Nuggets general manager Vince Boryla was in no mood for sleeping, and he shoved the keys to the tavern's front door in his pants pocket.
The year was 1984. Michael Jackson was the King of Pop. Magic Johnson ruled the NBA. As Boryla reached for the Canadian whiskey at 15 minutes past 2 a.m., I dared to ask this big 57-year-old basketball executive — with eyebrows as bushy as the outback and a voice so intimidating it could make Darth Vader blink — if he honestly believed the Nuggets could win games by imitating the frenetic pace of the Showtime Lakers.