The Denver Nuggets Ring and the presents of presence

I can be a little slow, but I feel like sometimes the USA Today-level pictographs are obvious even to me… See if you see the same thing I do in Basketball Reference’s map of most-viewed teams by state, 2022 vs 2023, and their tweeted question of: “What stands out to you?”

And I love you, Basketball Reference, but… Well, let’s see…

Hmmm. You changed the colors for each team. That definitely sticks out… that’s nice…

Golden State is no longer top-searched anywhere in 2o23… is that it? Hmmm. Sort of a surprise…

The Jazz in Georgia in 2022 is almost as surprising as the Lakers in Maine. Really, Maine?

What. Else. Could. It… wait a sec…

Is it that a team that was most-searched in only their home state – and even that may not have been true every year, sadly – is now the most searched team in HALF THE STATES IN THE COUNTRY?

Geez, Denver Nuggets. I’d be betting that will be putting a few more presents under all of your trees this year.

The amazing effects of winning a championship are oft-reported for teams in every sort of league, even across collegiate and high school programs. But nowhere is the impact more profound than at the professional level, where winning a ring can impact a franchise the way hosting a Super Bowl or World Series might impact a city. Economically, and at all levels. When an NBA franchise hangs its first banner, or first in years, the sales impacts can be rather resplendent. When an NHL franchise hoists that cup, it’s not just sweater sales that go through the roof.

Baseball, football, soccer, lacrosse, you name it. When you are the most-recent, or even a more-recent champion, the focus on you in news articles, searches, commercials, endorsements, and yes… beloved merchandise sales goes through the roof. People wants to see the stats of the stat-breaking machine that is Nikola Jokic. People want to buy the jersey of one, or maybe maybe two, or heck, how-many-times-do-we-win-our-first-ring-let’s-buy three of their favorite players. In all my travels, I didn’t see a Nuggets logo in an East Coast airport until halfway through last year’s playoffs. Now it’s fun to count just how many pickaxes or Maxie Miners you see in a day.

That has translated to more attention for all of the team. Jamal Murray headlines a truly all-star cast in a New Balance commercial, Jokic and Peyton Watson headline a couple of hotels.com spots, and even mascot Rocky finds himself with a larger local spotlight. The whole idea of now having a larger presence is taking up a lot of mental shelf space these Nuggets have never occupied across the country, and even globally (hello, Jokic’s Chinese sneaker deal) and given the Nuggets a literal and virtual footprint they’ve never enjoyed. While one of their primary missions is turning this team into something a little more dynastic, they also have to be seeing an influx of cash from the sheer awareness this championship has generated. Let’s hope that results in the long-term presents of a few more rings before all is said and done.