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Denver Nuggets Lovers' Top Tweets Celebrating NBA Championship, R-Rated Version

"It was a matter of popping that cherry," said Jamal Murray.
June 13, 2023
Nikola Jokic enjoying a post-game smooch (from one of his brothers) after the Denver Nuggets won the NBA championship on June 12.
Nikola Jokic enjoying a post-game smooch (from one of his brothers) after the Denver Nuggets won the NBA championship on June 12. ESPN via ABC/Photo by Michael Roberts
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Feels like the first time.

This isn't a reference to a dopey Foreigner song. No, it's an apt description of the emotions that surged through fans of the Denver Nuggets after Nikola Jokic and the rest of the Mile High City crew wrapped up the NBA championship with a 94-89 victory over the Miami Heat last night, June 12.

Never before had the Nuggets even made it to the NBA finals, let alone emerged victorious — an accomplishment 47 years in the making. And during a hilarious post-game appearance with Scott Van Pelt, among the few ESPN personalities to give the Denver crew love throughout the playoffs, an on-the-way-to-blotto Jamal Murray equated the accomplishment to a loss of virginity.

"This is the first of many," he told Van Pelt regarding a lust for more rings. "It was a matter of popping that cherry."

That Murray would go there was somehow appropriate, given his starring role in a notorious 2020 sex video. And to its credit, ESPN let the comment sail by, along with his use of the word "fricking." Indeed, Van Pelt subsequently praised Jamal for resisting the urge to drop the other F-word.

Plenty of Nuggets fans on Twitter weren't so family-friendly, and their need to express themselves so graphically made sense not only because of the long wait to reach ecstasy, but because of the sequence of events in the ultimate game, which, statistically speaking, Denver had no business winning.

Examples? How about five-for-28 shooting from three, for a percentage of an astonishingly awful 17.9 percent? And then there was the unit's free-throw lack of success — ten misses out of 23 tries, which would be bad at the high school level.

Even more frustrating was some of the worst officiating in the history of professional sports. The referees regularly put their thumb on the scale in favor of the Heat, as if under orders from NBA commissioner Adam Silver to extend the proceedings to a sixth game — most egregiously by upholding a fourth-quarter foul on a three-point shot by Jimmy Butler during which Miami's main man overtly kicked out his leg to make contact with Aaron Gordon, who'd given him plenty of room to land. Even announcers Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy, who've been Denver doubters since day one, were left slack-jawed when Nuggets head coach Michael Malone's challenge was rejected.

Nonetheless, the Nugs prevailed, thanks largely to an incredible defensive performance in the second half — even Michael Porter Jr., who also cobbled together sixteen points, was excellent — and the mastery of Jokic, who'd clearly decided that Denver would triumph and then made it happen. His stat line of 28 points, sixteen rebounds and four assists was ordinary by his standards, but far more than that given his impact.

Of course, Jokic was named the finals MVP — a bauble he accepted with his usual modesty and understatement. In an-court conversation with ESPN's Lisa Salters, he said reaching the mountaintop felt "good, good," after which he added, "Now we can go home."

Not quite yet. There's still the matter of a parade on Thursday.

Continue to count down our picks for the most cherry tweets about the Nuggets' title:

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Michael Roberts began his career with Westword in 1990 as music editor. In 1999, he took on a new role, full-time media reporter, as author of a column called The Message. In 2008, he became the lead writer for Westword's news blog, The Latest Word, a position he held until January 2023. Michael continues to freelance for Westword, covering everything from business to sports and the media; he also contributes to Jazziz, a national music magazine. He holds a bachelor's degree from what is now Colorado Mesa University and master's degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Northwestern University.
Contact: Michael Roberts
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