This all makes me feel like a newcomer.

Here's the second installment in a series of Popes' guest posts, chronicling his journey through Nugget fandom, the NBA playoffs, and life.


Nuggets finished their dismantling of the Hornets Wednesday night. I watched the game, banquet beer in hand, with a smile on my face. The Nuggets never lost their composure during the shoddy officiating early on, Melo consistently took it to the hole and passed out of double teams, Dahntay Jones played his way into a blossoming man-crush, and Chauncey smiled and the whole world smiled back.

I don’t even know what to say, I haven’t been a fan for nearly long enough to really appreciate this win. I loved every second of the win.

I stayed high on the play of the Nugs for quite some time after Game 2. I was convinced the Nuggets were invincible when they played to their potential. I was ready to have my team take on the world.

Not much changed over the next 3 games, the Nuggets had a misstep in Game 3 and then doled out the beat down of the half-century in Game 4. Game 5 was a foregone conclusion, I knew they were going to win. They had the mental edge, they had the physical edge, they could draw on the reservoir of belief that they had almost doubled up the Hornets. An NBA franchise getting doubled up, yikes.

And they won, just as I knew they would and in much the same fashion as previous games. So I celebrated for a while, let the feelings of my team’s success sink in. And then faster than I thought, I returned to practicality, to an almost regular season like approach to the next series.

I’m educating myself on the Mav’s so I know all the names to yell at the screen/court when I’m watching. I’m figuring out who the best match-ups will be so I can criticize Karl when he doesn’t play it the way I want. I’m heading into this series knowing that we’ve got to win and I want to know how we can do it.

Perhaps it is because I’ve only been following this team for a couple years that I am refocusing on their next series so quickly. Or maybe it’s because I think the Nuggets can make some real noise in this year Playoff’s and the first round isn’t nearly enough of a ruckus. Whatever the reason, the next game is Sunday and I can’t wait.

-Popes