Even After Winning The NBA Title The Denver Nuggets Are Still Being Wildly Disrespected
Justin Edmonds. Getty Images.Usually when we hear from fanbases or teams about being "disrespected", it's mostly bullshit. Players and teams use that stuff all the time as some sort of motivation, even if it's kind of ridiculous.
For my money, that is not the case when it comes to the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets and their fans, and I think last year pretty much proved it. The media was working overtime to try and find any reason why Nikola Jokic wasn't the MVP, even though our eyes and common sense told us the exact opposite. For whatever reason, Jokic never really got the level of respect you would expect of a guy who had already won multiple MVPs.
The Nuggets as a team were the best in the West the entire year. From start to finish, they ran the conference. Did that come with a proper level of respect? God no. People cared more about adjustments the Lakers made (in a loss) than the fact that the Nuggets were the actual team that won.
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They the Nuggets fucked around and won the whole goddamn thing, securing their first ever title in dominant fashion. Surely now they would finally be treated with the proper amount of respect right?
I mean…this is crazy. The Warriors and Suns are playing each other, so it makes sense Steph and KD are there. The Lakers are playing, so Lebron makes sense.
You know what else happens Tuesday? The Denver Nuggets raise their championship banner to the rafters and get their championship rings. I dunno, you would think the NBA/TNT would have the NBA champion on their season kickoff promo, but maybe that's just me. The most disrespectful part of this whole graphic is probably the fact that Jayson Tatum and the Celtics don't even play on Tuesday on TNT. They kick off the season on Wednesday night on ESPN!
So while I'll never be unhappy with Tatum getting some shine as one of the faces of the league, you know who else is the face of the league? The best player on the planet who also happens to play for the Denver Nuggets. The guy who just so happens to have beaten two of these players shown on the way to his title. To have Tatum and not Jokic in that graphic is a crazy slap in the face, even if it was unintentional. How do you not have the defending champ on this graphic when they are playing on Opening Night?
Ask this another way. If any of those 4 players shown had won the title and then were having their first game on TNT, are they getting left off this graphic completely? Of course not! So what's the deal with Jokic and the Nuggets getting the snub? What's the rationale for including a player who not only isn't even playing on that day, but isn't even debuting this season on that network entirely over the defending champs/best player in the world who is playing Tuesday on TNT?
So yeah, if Nuggets fans or the players want to play the disrespect card, it's not bullshit. We saw this last year when people who you knew didn't even really watch the Nuggets tried to call them "boring" as if Jokic isn't must watch TV every single night, and even after winning the NBA title it doesn't look like much has changed.
Whatever though, at the end of the day the banner is still going up in the Mile High on Tuesday, whether the NBA/TNT wants to promote it or not, and that's what truly matters