Woe be to Denver, where the Nuggets’ playoff failures — 37 chances without a championship so far — haunt the city like the ghost of a bearded cartoon miner.
DENVER — It was 1976, 39 years before the arrival of Nikola Jokic, when the Denver Nuggets had their last best chance to win a championship.
Hair was big, shorts were small. The ball was red, white and blue. The Nuggets had the American Basketball Association’s best record, again, and a roster with three future Hall of Famers.
But the New York Nets had Julius Erving, who led them to an upset in the finals.