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“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.”
-John Lennon
Several of my friends in my youth called me Charlie Brown, based on my willingness to get burned by a person multiple times and still come back and try again on some front. They claimed it was based on a kind heart. I think I’m just a very slow learner.
But damnit, I come back to every Denver Nuggets season with a ton of hope in my heart. It’s not simply a matter of naiveté, or even hardheadedness. I look at (most every) upcoming season and see all of the reasons my favorite team is headed towards great success. Juancho Hernangomez’s double-double against Romania a few nights back? Juancho will be a double-double machine all season. Paul Millsap? Bumping us up to the playoffs this season. Six power forwards? SI will be writing an article about how crazy it is that it all worked out by December. OK, maybe I’m a little naive. Maybe a lot naive. But the dream of a title for your favorite team can drive a fan base for a long time. Ask your friends who are Chicago Cubs fans.
One of the hardest parts of dreaming too big is in watching that bubble of hope burst every season when something goes awry, realizing that OF COURSE six power forwards was a bad idea, or that the faults of last season didn’t magically disappear in some weird cosmic click like the Pittsburgh Pisces.
Good lord, I’m such a sucker for the hope story, I admit I watched that movie. More than once. Or twice. Cripes. I may actually check and see how close the Nuggets are to having a mutual astrological sign.***
Poll
If everything went as perfectly as it could for the Denver Nuggets this season, what is the best outcome they could reasonably hope to achieve?
This poll is closed
-
1%
Still missing the playoffs
(8 votes) -
22%
In the lower half of the playoff bracket - first round exit
(129 votes) -
45%
In the upper half of the playoff bracket - second round exit
(266 votes) -
19%
The Conference Finals
(112 votes) -
1%
The Finals
(9 votes) -
10%
Something shiny for their ring fingers
(59 votes)
***Two things:
- I love and miss Colorado so much, this article has 303 words. I wish I had planned that. Kudos to those of you who said, Thank god it wasn’t 720.”
- The title of the piece is in no way meant to diminish one of the world’s great speeches, only to evoke that we all have a dream that we cling to with all hope.