After what we just witnessed between May 12 and May 19 — with the Denver Nuggets choking away their second-round series at home to the Minnesota Timberwolves after going up 3-2, the Colorado Avalanche getting bounced by the Dallas Stars in double overtime (at home), the Colorado Rockies being swept by the San Francisco Giants after winning seven straight, and the Colorado Rapids losing to Rocky Mountain Cup rival Real Salt Lake — some of us are wondering whether it was the worst week ever in Colorado sports history.
It's got some stiff competition.
The past few decades, unfortunately, haven't been the Colorado gold rush that local fans have hoped for, despite having some of the best venues, crowds and players in all of sports.
Sure, there have been numerous titles to come through the Centennial State over the years courtesy of the Broncos, Avs, Nuggets and Rapids. But championships are always few and far between when compared to the annual misery Coloradans have endured.
Let's take a look at how our most recent suckfest stacks up to other terrible, horrible, no good, very bad weeks in local sports history.
Can It Get Any Worse?
(May 12-19, 2024)
The Nuggets were up by twenty points in game seven against the Timberwolves before the team eventually blew the game.
Denver Nuggets via YouTube
This latest terrible sports week was putrid because of two factors: what was at stake in the games being played and the fashion of how the losing goes down. From May 12 to May 19, Colorado hit rock bottom at both for basketball and hockey, along with losses in other popular sports.
Before Friday, May 17, Colorado teams were riding high: The Rockies had won four games straight between May 12 and 15, three of which were against the San Diego Padres, one of the team's NL West rivals; the Avalanche beat the Stars on May 15 in Dallas to keep their Stanley Cup hopes alive and advance the series to a home game; and the Nuggets went up 3-2 on the Timberwolves, with wins on May 12 and May 14 in Minnesota and Denver, respectively.
But it was all downhill after that.
The Rockies went on to lose three straight to the Giants between May 17 and May 19; the Nuggets lost two straight to the Wolves on May 17 and May 19, including a game-seven loss at home after being up by twenty points in the second half; the Avs lost to the Stars on May 18 at home in double OT; and the Rapids lost to Salt Lake in the second edition of the RMC title.
What makes it even worse are the title aspirations that Nuggets and Avs fans had following successful regular seasons and stellar performances from Nikola Jokic and Nathan MacKinnon, among others.
Still, is this the worst Colorado sports week ever? 2021 would like to have a word.
Darkest Before the Dawn
(June 6-13, 2021)
In terms of losses, the week of June 6-13, 2021, gives our recent 2024 woes a run for their money.
Both the Avalanche and the Nuggets had their playoff runs cut short during this week, with Denver getting swept by the Phoenix Suns and Colorado falling in six games to the Las Vegas Golden Knights after going up 2-0 to start the series.
The Rockies lost four games in a row between June 10 and June 13, dropping an away matchup to the Miami Marlins and an away series to the Cincinnati Reds. Manager Bud Black's squad lost by a combined score of 38-14 that weekend.
The Rapids were actually looking good at this time of the year and had a 4-2-1 record heading into a June 19 showdown with FC Cincinnati, which Colorado won 2-0.
The Avs and Nuggets would both go on to win championships in 2022 and 2023, however.
Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns tangle in game four of the Western Conference second-round playoff series at Ball Arena in 2021.
Dustin Bradford / Getty Images
What likely hurt most about this week in June 2021 was everything that could've been, with multiple injuries affecting the Nuggets — including a season-ending ACL injury to star point guard Jamal Murray — and high expectations for the Avs after an incredible regular season.
Colorado had clinched its third Presidents' Trophy and the team's tenth division championship before heading into the Stanley Cup playoffs as the top seed in the West Division. If that wasn't enough to boost fans' egos, the Avs went on to sweep the St. Louis Blues in the first round before getting blindsided by Vegas in the second.
Two of the six games that the Avs and Golden Knights played went to overtime.
For the Nuggets, Jokic and comoany had obtained a three-seed heading into the 2021 NBA playoffs and were able to beat the Portland Trailblazers in the first round, 4-2. The infamous "Suns in four" series would be a different story.
Denver lost to Phoenix by a combined score of 486-423. It was only the second time in the team's near-fifty-year history that the Nuggets were swept in a seven-game series. The other instance came during the week we'll look at next.
Spring Cleaning
(April 27-May 4, 2008)
The brooms came out quickly for both the Nuggets and the Avalanche during this horrid week in Colorado sports history, with the Lakers being the bane of the Nuggets' existence — knocking out Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson from the first round of the NBA playoffs with a 4-0 sweep — while Avs fans had to deal with a heartbreaking second-round sweep by the Detroit Red Wings following a huge series win over the Minnesota Wild.
2008 was a much different time for both squads, as well as the Rockies, which had just gone to the World Series the year before. The Rapids had opened up Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City during the 2007 season and were on the rise, heading for an eventual 2010 MLS Championship.
The Avs series against top-seeded Detroit came after six-seeded Colorado upset the Minnesota Wild, a third seed, in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Colorado was returning to the postseason after missing it in 2007 for the first time since the franchise moved from Quebec in 1995.
Fans had been hoping to see Colorado get back on track with a playoff run. What ended up happening, though, was a massacre on ice.
The Avs lost the Detroit series by a combined score of 21-9 following a disastrous Game 4 that saw the Red Wings drop eight goals on Peter Budaj's and José Théodore's heads.
Injuries to key players for Colorado — like Peter Forsberg and the team's leading scorer, Paul Stastny — were too big of an obstacle for the team to overcome. Even Red Wings coach Mike Babcock was feeling sorry for the depleted Avs by series end.
“I’ve seen injuries in the playoffs, but I’ve never seen that many injuries,” he told reporters after the game-four culling in Denver. “I mean, come on. That’s not fair.”
Detroit went on to win the Stanley Cup that year.
The Rockies, meanwhile, were doing Rockies things despite being the reigning NL Champions: losing games on April 27, April 28, April 30, May 2 and May 3.
Manager Clint Hurdle's squad won only one game through this dreadful stretch, coming against the Giants on April 29. It didn't help that the losses were doled out by division rivals (Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers).
One of the reasons the Nuggets' series sweep against the Kobe Bryant-led Lakers was as painful as it was — for fans, at least — was the fact that Iverson and Anthony had just played their first and only full season together in Denver.
"It’s disappointing," Anthony told reporters after losing game four. "I don’t know what else to say about that. All you’ve got to do is try to come back next year and try to start all over again."
The Rapids didn't drop any games during this time, but the team did do some ugly foreshadowing with a loss to the Chicago Fire 2-1 on April 26, just one day before the historic hell week began.
While it may not have hurt as much as seeing the Nuggets fall in seven games and fail to repeat — or the Avs losing in double overtime at home — 2008 is arguably our worst week in Colorado sports history.
