Jokic and Murray Giving Nuggets Fans the Ride of Their Lives

“To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.”
– William Makepeace Thackeray

I was seven, and had wildly enjoyed my very first trip to Disneyland. We’d ridden all the best rides multiple times, I had met characters I’d only ever seen on TV, and I’d eaten all of the sugar. ALL of the sugar. It had to be one of the best days of my recently-formed life.

As it got dark, we watched the Main Street Electrical Parade, grabbed a couple of wonderful souvenirs, and then headed to the car to go home. We were halfway across the parking lot when it hit me. The then-best day of my life was over. All of that magic was now in the past. As the memories came flooding back, there was a lump in my throat over a feeling of loss I’d never really felt before. How could something so good feel so bad? Would I ever be that happy again?

Turns out I would. Several times over. Including when watching the Denver Nuggets over the course of a multitude of ups and downs over the last few decades, but maybe never so much as these last 10 seasons of watching Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray share a court together.

While the duo has had their low moments over that decade – Murray missed a season in the middle of it due to injury, Jokic had his own lengthy outage just this season – the pairing has mostly been made up of unbelievable highs. Trips to the playoffs and All-Star contests. Comebacks so improbable you had to pinch yourself to make sure you weren’t dreaming it. Triple-Doubles and scoring barrages that seemed to come so easily as to be blessed. A pairing that has won more games since they have been together than any other duo in the league.

Jamal has put up his third and fourth 50-plus-point games this year. Nikola has notched a pair of those as well. Those make up four of five 50+ point outbursts Denver has enjoyed this year. That’s the highest total the team has ever enjoyed in a single season, and no one would be surprised to see them land another before the last eight games of this campaign are done. They are each having one of the finest seasons of their careers.

Joker has climbed the heights of some of the NBA’s most improbable categories. Murray goes on some of the most torrid shooting streaks in the league. Jamal is the team’s all-time leader in three pointers made. Nikola leads the Nuggets all-time lists in no less than sixteen categories already. They have built and battled their way to accolade after accolade, and were the tips of the spear in bringing the team it’s very first championship. Since their arrival, the Nuggets have enjoyed the best basketball they have ever played. If there is ever a Mount Rushmore of Denver Nuggets basketball to be carved out, it would be criminal to not have both of their faces etched into it.

I learned a new word while on a date the other night, and then had a sad-it’s-over moment on the way back across the parking lot. The Portuguese have a word – Saudade – that describes that bittersweet longing you have for something or someone when they are gone. It’s that feeling I had in the parking lot after my first day at Disneyland. It’s when you feel the hole that is left in your heart after something spectacular isn’t with you any more. And my dear friends, we Colorado hoops fans have spent the last decade riding all the best rides at Denver Nuggets Disneyland. Eating all the basketball sugar, and finding out with a Serbian and a Canadian that it really is a small world, after all.

Enjoy this while that Basketball Light Parade still shines. It’s going to be a long walk back across the parking lot after. Saudade.