On the day of another senseless tragedy, the Nuggets brought a bit of joy to a community in need

How do you begin to grieve after yet another school shooting, especially one that takes place in your own neighborhood? Michael Malone chose to talk about it.

“I just wanted to start off with a quick word,” a shaken Malone said unprompted as he began his pregame press conference before the Nuggets’ and Trail Blazers’ Game 5. “I think we’re all aware of what happened down at Highlands Ranch today at the STEM School. That’s the community that I live in and I know the thoughts and prayers are never enough but one student was killed eight were injured today and from myself, our team, our organization, our thoughts and prayers are with all those families, students, school administrators everybody that was there today. It’s a tragedy.”

Tuesday’s school shooting which left one child dead and several others injured rocked the Denver suburb of Highlands Ranch, a community where Malone and his wife Jocelyn, a former school teacher, and his two middle-school-aged daughters reside. Malone and his family live two minutes from the school where the shooting took place and although his daughters don’t attend STEM School, which has an enrollment of around 1,800 students who range from kindergarten through 12th grade, Tuesday marked the second time in the last month that their school had been placed on a lockout. Malone learned of the shooting following the Nuggets’ walk-through Tuesday morning as he was preparing for Game 5.

This shooting at STEM School came seven days after a man shot six people at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, killing two. Just last month, hundreds of schools in Colorado were closed as law enforcement searched for a Florida woman who they said had made threats ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting that claimed 13 lives, which is about seven miles from the site of Tuesday’s tragedy.

“I was in my office and I got a call from my wife. She’s the one who told me about it,” Malone said. “And the thing that makes you angry is she’s telling me how scared my daughters are, in their schools, texting her. Because they don’t know what’s going on. It’s a lockout. Where’s this shooter? Is it at our school? Some other school? When kids go to school, they should be going to school to learn, to have fun, be with their friends, not worry about an active shooter. We’re all part of it. We all have families, we all have kids, nieces, nephews, whatever it is. It’s just frustrating and it gets you angry because it hits home.”

“It’s not just Highlands Ranch, it’s not Colorado, this is an epidemic and it continues to happen, and that’s the frustrating thing. How do you stop it? Again, gun control, laws, whatever it might be. I’m not a politician, I don’t want to sit up here on a soapbox. I just want everybody back in Highlands Ranch to know we are with you. And that’s really important for them to know.”

Basketball seemed secondary by the time the sun set Tuesday night after a city and state had spent the last several hours absorbing that afternoon’s tragedy. “Thoughts and prayers are never enough,” Malone said as the hollow phrase poured in from across the country like clockwork as Game 5 drew near. Trail Blazers’ center Enes Kanter even offered his condolences in a thoughtful tweet a few hours before the game and Pepsi Center held a moment of silence before the National Anthem for the victims from earlier in the day.

Then, basketball.

The Nuggets raced out to a 31-25 lead after the first quarter and led by 18 points at the half. Denver expanded its lead to 20-plus in the third and cruised to a 124-98 win, by far the Nuggets’ most convincing victory of the playoffs.

With Denver’s blowout win, came precise offensive execution, ball movement, and joy. The Nuggets carry an incredible amount of energy when they’re moving the ball like they did Tuesday, and the spirit they played with seeped into a sold-out crowd which was boisterous from the start. The equal-opportunity offense that helped Denver rise the Western Conference ranks over the last few seasons was on full display.

“Passing makes two people happy,” Nikola Jokic, who led the Nuggets with 25 points, 19 rebounds and six assists, likes to say. “Scoring only makes one person happy.”

The All-Star’s creed held true in Game 5. The Nuggets and the 19,500-plus fans in attendance had plenty of reasons to smile as Denver handed out 26 assists, its second-highest total in five matchups against Portland. The Nuggets’ 26-point margin of victory was Denver’s largest in the playoffs.

For a few brief moments, the “M-V-P” chants that showered Jokic throughout the evening from fans waving white towels in unison and beautiful basketball that Denver played attempted to mask the pain of a state that’s been plagued by gun violence in recent years. In the final two minutes of regulation, seldom-used reserve Juancho Hernangomez, the free-spirited Spaniard who’s game is built on joy, entered to a standing ovation and soon after sunk a corner 3 from right in front of the Nuggets’ bench. His triple sent Pepsi Center into another state of pandemonium.

“Hopefully we brought a little relief to the fans in the Denver area tonight with another quality home win against a very good basketball team,” Malone said. “Hopefully, that brings some joy to a really sad day in many regards.”

The news of the shooting in Highland’s Ranch, located just 16 miles south of Pepsi Center, filtered through the Nuggets’ organization throughout the day. Gary Harris found out about it before the game, as did Jamal Murray.

“For it not to be safe at kid’s schools, it’s tragic,” Murray said. “We’ve all got to be better as human beings. That’s something that you can’t really get away from.”

The tragedy also hit close to home for Paul Millsap, who lives in Denver’s Cherry Hills neighborhood, around 15 minutes north of STEM School, but has two daughters, one in high school and the other in middle school. Both have already been on lockdown multiple times this year. Assistant coach Ryan Bowen lives close by, as does general manager Arturas Karnisovas. Will Barton, who lives in the Cherry Creek suburb of Denver, has young children of his own too.

“I heard about it after shootaround,” Barton said. “Devastating. It’s sad anytime anything happens like that. Just tough to read about it, hear about it. Those are someone’s kids, and I feel for any of the parents that were involved in it and any of the kids that were at the school that had to witness it and were affected by it. It’s just a sad scene and hopefully, we can get past stuff like that and stop doing things like that. It’s tough.”

Malone was able to block out the emotions that he felt ahead of Game 5 once Denver controlled the opening tip shortly after 8:30 p.m. local time, but as soon as the buzzer sounded late Tuesday night his thoughts shifted back to the shooting from earlier in the day. They’ll likely stay there for some time.

This wasn’t the first time Malone has called for change following a school shooting. Last season, while the Nuggets were in Milwaukee, Denver’s coach addressed the Stoneman Douglas shooting in Parkland, Florida where seventeen students and staff members were killed and several others were injured. The shooting occurred a day before the Nuggets’ 134-123 win over the Bucks when Jokic recorded what’s believed to be the fastest triple-double in league history.

This one was in Malone’s backyard and involved families that he knows.

“I’m texting my daughter telling her she’s going to be OK. I don’t even know if she will be OK,” Malone said. “This is every parent’s worst nightmare, something that when you see your kids go to school in the morning, it’s, ‘Have a great day,’ and you just assume everything is going to be alright and as we all know, it’s not.”

A basketball game was never going to wipe away a catastrophe like a school shooting. The pain felt by those involved will stay forever, while the result of Tuesday’s matchup will eventually be fade into the background of whatever Denver makes of its 2019 playoff run.

But maybe for one night or even for just a few hours, the Nuggets uplifted a community that needed something to cheer about before a city that was hit by yet another senseless tragedy mourns once again.