Denver Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets won the 2023 NBA championship, beating the Miami Heat 4–1 in the Finals. It was the franchise’s first championship in fifty-six combined NBA and ABA seasons. Nikola Jokić, drafted 41st overall in the 2014 NBA Draft, was Finals MVP. The franchise was founded in 1967 as the Denver Rockets of the ABA, rebranded to the Nuggets in 1974, joined the NBA in the 1976 ABA-NBA merger, and has been owned by Stan Kroenke since 2000. The 2023 championship run made Jokić the first second-round-drafted player to win Finals MVP since Tim Duncan (first overall) inverted the pattern, though Jokić’s specific draft position (#41, second round) is the single most-cited scouting outlier of the past decade.
The ABA years (1967–1976)
The Denver Rockets were a founding ABA franchise in 1967. The team played at the Denver Auditorium Arena through the late 1970s. The Rockets rebranded as the Nuggets in 1974, choosing the name because a potential NBA-merger franchise (the Houston Rockets) had the same name. Larry Brown coached the Nuggets to the ABA Finals in 1976, the year of the merger; Denver lost to the New York Nets 4–2 in that final.
David Thompson, the 1975 ABA Rookie of the Year out of North Carolina State, was the franchise’s face in the merger era. The Nuggets joined the NBA for the 1976–77 season as part of the four-team merger (Denver, New York Nets, Indiana Pacers, San Antonio Spurs). Thompson scored 73 points in a game on April 9, 1978, the final game of the regular season, a single-game scoring total surpassed only by Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 (1962), Kobe Bryant’s 81 (2006), and David Robinson’s 71 (1994) in NBA history.
The Alex English era (1979–1990)
Alex English, acquired from Indiana in 1980, is the Nuggets’ all-time leading scorer and a Hall of Famer. English averaged 28.4 points per game across the 1980s. Head coach Doug Moe’s run-and-gun “Moe Offense” made the 1980s Nuggets the league’s highest-scoring team. The 1981–82 team averaged 126.5 points per game, the highest single-season scoring average in the post-1976 merger era. The 1982–83 team averaged 123.2 points.
The Moe-English Nuggets made the playoffs nine consecutive years from 1981–82 to 1989–90. They reached the Western Conference Finals in 1985, losing to the Lakers. None of the Moe-era teams reached the NBA Finals. The defense never matched the offense.
The 1990s decline and the 8-1 upset
The 1993–94 Denver Nuggets, coached by Dan Issel and led by Dikembe Mutombo, beat the 63-win Seattle SuperSonics in the first round of the playoffs, the first eight-seed to beat a one-seed in a best-of-five NBA playoff series in league history. The image of Mutombo lying on the floor holding the basketball with his arms outstretched after the Game 5 overtime win is one of the most-reproduced images in 1990s basketball. The Nuggets lost in the second round to Utah.
The late 1990s and early 2000s produced no playoff runs. The 2002–03 Nuggets went 17–65, the worst record in franchise history.
The Carmelo Anthony era (2003–2011)
The 2003 NBA Draft produced Carmelo Anthony with the third overall pick. Full Anthony Nuggets-era story here. Anthony was a six-time All-Star in Denver. The 2008–09 Nuggets, after the November 2008 trade that brought Chauncey Billups from Detroit, went 54–28 and reached the Western Conference Finals. Anthony averaged 32.5 points in the conference finals loss to the Lakers. It was the franchise’s deepest playoff run since the Moe era.
On February 21, 2011, Anthony was traded to the New York Knicks in a multi-team deal. Denver received Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov, a first-round pick, and second-round picks. The trade is the inflection point between the Anthony era and the rebuild that produced Jokić.
The Nikola Jokić era
The 2014 NBA Draft produced Nikola Jokić with the 41st overall pick, the 11th pick of the second round, during a broadcast break. Full Jokić story here. Jokić debuted in 2015–16 at age twenty, was a rotation player for two seasons, and by 2018–19 had established himself as the Nuggets’ offensive hub.
Mike Malone was hired as head coach in June 2015 and has been the head coach through the 2024–25 season, the longest head-coaching tenure in franchise history. The 2019–20 Nuggets, inside the Orlando bubble, came back from 3–1 series deficits against Utah and the Clippers to reach the Western Conference Finals. The Clippers’ 3–1 collapse is the second-most-cited blown lead in NBA playoff history after the 2016 Warriors’ Finals loss.
Jokić won the 2020–21 and 2021–22 NBA MVPs. He added a third in 2023–24. The 2022–23 Nuggets, with Jokić, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, went 53–29, the Western Conference’s top seed. The 2023 playoff run: swept Minnesota 4–0, beat Phoenix 4–2, swept the Lakers 4–0 in the Western Conference Finals, beat Miami 4–1 in the Finals. Jokić averaged 30.2 points, 14.0 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game across the Finals. The championship was the franchise’s first.
The 2023–24 Nuggets were eliminated by Minnesota in the second round. The 2024–25 Nuggets reached the Western Conference Finals and were eliminated by the eventual-champion Thunder. Jokić was 2024–25 regular-season MVP finalist, losing to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Ownership
Stan Kroenke purchased the Nuggets in 2000 as part of a $450 million package that also included the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche and the Pepsi Center. The Nuggets’ purchase price was approximately $202 million. Kroenke’s broader sports empire includes the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams (100 percent owned since 2010), Arsenal Football Club (majority owned since 2018), the Colorado Rapids (MLS), the Colorado Mammoth (NLL), and several esports teams. Kroenke Sports & Entertainment is the parent company.
Kroenke is married to Ann Walton, an heiress to the Walmart fortune. His personal 2025 Forbes net worth was approximately $16.9 billion. The Nuggets’ 2025 Forbes valuation was approximately $3.4 billion.
Retired numbers
Seven jersey numbers have been retired:
- David Thompson (33)
- Alex English (2)
- Byron Beck (40)
- Dan Issel (44)
- Dikembe Mutombo (55)
- Fat Lever (12)
- Bobby Jones (24)
Doug Moe’s 432-career-wins coaching banner hangs in Ball Arena. Jokić’s 15 is a presumed future retirement.
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Sources
- Basketball-Reference, Denver Nuggets franchise page
- The Denver Post, Nuggets beat coverage
- ABA records, 1967–1976 (Denver Rockets / Nuggets)
- 2014 NBA Draft records (Jokić selected 41st overall)
- 2023 NBA Finals box scores (Denver 4, Miami 1)
- 2000 Kroenke purchase records ($202 million for the Nuggets in a $450 million package)
- Forbes NBA Team Valuations, 2025
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