“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all of the year. I’ll live in the Past, the Present and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I won’t shut out the courses they teach! ”

— Ebenezer Scrooge, “A Christmas Carol”

STAVE 1: DAN ISSEL

The ghost of Christmas Past viewed from over and unfurled a smile that, like his thighs, appeared to go on eternally. Before 2018, the last time that the Denver Nuggets had uttered 21 wins by Christmas afternoon, Dan Issel was 28, a Horse in his prime in the center of a franchise during its apex.

“What was exciting about that at 1976 had been, we’d always been sort of looked down on, being an ABA staff, along with the NBA thought they had been playing basketball,” recalled Issel, a 6-foot-9 center with the 1976-77 Nuggets, that held that the best record in the NBA’s Western Conference Dec. 25 of that year in 21-9 — a beginning after 30 games that wouldn’t even be matched by a second roster in franchise history before last week. “And we understood that wasn’t even the reality. That was very special, to come in and return to that sort of beginning and acquire the Midwest branch. ”

Funny how what goes around comes back . Eventually.

The Nuggets of ‘76 were deep, tall, fast, and, coming off a loss to the New York Nets in the past ABA finals, afraid of absolutely no one.

Subsequently: Issel, that averaged 22.3 points and 8.8 rebounds per game that winter, a large man who might make it rain out of any place in the fitness center. Currently: Nikola Jokic. Subsequently: David Thompson, the Airness before Jordan. Currently: Jamal Murray. Subsequently: Bobby Jonesa 6-foot-9 grinder power forwards who did the dirty work on the two ends of the ground and defended such as his paycheck teetered on it. Currently: Paul Millsap.

“That season we have off to this beginning, we had Bobby Jones, that had been a excellent defensive player and a excellent rebounder,” Issel recalled after watching the Nuggets finish off the Dallas Mavericks, 126-118, last Tuesday in the Pepsi Center. “I believe that you can compare his game, a tiny bit, to Millsap. We had scorers like David Thompson. I couldn’t even miss just like Jokic could, but my sport was supposed to pull the huge men we played against away in the basket. I see many similarities between that 1976-77 staff and this team. ”

Beneath then-coach Larry Brown, the Nuggets allowed only 96.1 points per 100 possessions, nevertheless the best regular-season defensive efficacy in franchise history. In accordance with Basketball-Reference. The 1976-77 team sported a Relative Defensive Rating — in, defensive efficiency in comparison to the rest of the league at that given period — of minus-3.4 points per 100 possessions, tied to the third-best single-season mark in club history. The current Nuggets rank second in single-season Relative Defensive Rating, in minus-3.7 points.

“The thing about this season ’s team isthey don’t even seem to be receiving the credit that we obtained,” Issel said. “When you listen to federal sports people talk about the Western Conference, they’re constantly talking about, clearly, Golden State. And LeBron gets a lot of publicity only since he’s LeBron. But they mention groups like the Oklahoma City Thunder along with also the (Los Angeles) Clippers and even Memphis today, and … I don’t even understand why. Perhaps it’s time zone. This is a really good basketball team we’ve got right now. ”

***

STAVE two: VICKI RAY

She attracted 18 bags of candy and twice as many yarns. Vicki Ray pointed to an imaginary spot in the space, halfway up the lower bowlas a rough estimate of where she along with her late husband Russell used to sit over at old McNichols Arena. She remembered how, once the couple finally upgraded, she couldn’t even wait to tell star power forward LaPhonso Ellis.

“We’re getting closer to the ground,” Vicki stated to the Nuggets large guy. “So you’ll be able to hear . ”

Ellis grinned.

“Vicki,” the forwards replied, “we listen to you. ”

Ray smiled at that one. She’s a part of the tapestry today, having attended each Nuggets home game — save for three — over the past 27 seasons, signs before hand. It’s tough to overlook the lady crouched over the tunnel to the gamers ’ entry with individually wrapped, and independently curated, bags of treats for each and every man on the roster, nougat for Nuggets.

“Took me a few hours,” Ray, resplendent in a Maxie Miner throwback sweater, clarified prior to the Nuggets-Mavs tilt. “I needed to perform cards, too. ”

After all, it’s Christmas, and contemplating that the highs and lows — “along with realllllly lows,” Vicki laughed — of the last 3 years, the Nuggets of current feel as a gift that can’t stop giving.

“I constantly have interesting,” Vicki stated. “But this year has been the most enjoyable in 27 decades. Even over the Melo years.  I understand he took us into the match, but these guys just seem to need it as a staff. Not only this individual and that individual.  They’re not, ‘I’m carrying all the shots tonight along with you’re not getting any. ’ They’re a team. ”

So many teams. So many luggage. So many memories. Fat. Dikembe. LaFrentz. Camby. Iverson. Miller. Melo. Since 1990, 12 playoff appearances. Since 1990, 10 first-round playoff exits.

“I like groups who don’t even have the celebrity,” Ray stated. “I just do. ”

She loves this one, much more than usual. She loves the ground burns, the unselfishness, the poise, the persistence, and the swagger of a colt starting to figure out just how much those young legs can take it. She believes Russell, who passed away in the summer of 2016, would’t loved themtoo.

“Well, he was constantly saying that I cried ‘Defense’ & ‘Rebound, (expletive) it,’ a great deal,” Ray laughed. “I don’t even believe they understood what (defense) was. They perform it today. ”

Vicki, we listen to you.

“I always believed they could do it; they didn’t even believe they can get it done,” Ray stated. “But they still think this season. I can see it. ”

***

STAVE 3: TORREY CRAIG

Before 2018, the last time the Nuggets had banked 21 wins by Christmas morning, Torrey Craig was 14 decades away from being born. He’s heard regarding Thompson and Issel and Jones, roughly Hound Dog McClain along with Paul Silas and Byron Beck, on the ghosts that set the bar.

“It’s kind of like bringing the classic Denver Nuggets,” that the Nuggets little forward said of this current roster’s hot beginning. “So, yeah, everyone should enjoy it.

“Fans definitely reach to you using messages, or when they see you at a restaurant or outside in the mallthey’re definitely excited. They would like to take an image. You can tell they’re appreciating the run as far as we are. We ’re eager to become No. 1 at the West. Plus it looks like our lovers are enjoying it also. ”

“It’s pretty trendy, it’s enjoyable,” center Mason Plumlee added. “But there’s a lot of season left. ”

And much more twists in the tale. Of the last 40 NBA teams to go to bed Christmas Eve with all the best record in the West, only 19 went to perform with an NBA title a few months afterwards.

“This team is so young and of course, they need to get over these injuries,” Issel said. “(It’s harder) to keep going without (Gary) Harris along with also Milsap and some of the additional people who are hurt. They need to have everyone healthy. ”

The ghost understands. You require wellness. You need luck. You require depth. You need mojo. Only then can the Nuggets behave as good a team, to paraphrase Charles Dickens, since the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world.

“I can see this team — maybe not this year, however in a few years later on, if they remain healthy, contending for the championship,” Issel said.

“There’s no doubt about it, so you ought to be enthusiastic about getting the best conference record at any time of year. In Christmas, first portion of the calendar year, you’re far enough into the season that it’s no fluke. ”

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