Can You Feel It?

How 'bout them Nuggets?! Despite their embarassing loss last night to the Trailblazers in Portland, the Nuggets are the second seed in the NBA Playoffs finishing behind the LA Lakers. This is really exciting to have home court advantage through the playoffs and hopefully and finally make it past the first round. When was the last time we made it past the first round? My memories are thinking back to Dikembe hugging the basketball laying on the wooden flood in Seattle...I'm not sure if this was the last time or not. I've been anxiously waiting a decent Denver basketball team (meaning they finish the season above 500 and make it to the Playoffs). I believe I've been waiting since I was in the 5th grade, and luckily the past few years, the Nuggets have improved and we've been the eighth seed in the Playoffs. Some of my favorite childhood memories revolve around going to games with my dad and brother at McNichols. One in particular is when we got to the game early to watch the players warm up (one of my brother's and my favorite thing about going to the games) and Dan Issel's daughter found us in the stands and picked Lorens and his best friend at the time, Joe to participate during one of the timeouts and dress up in Mutumbo's practice jersey and shorts and his gigantic shoes, run down the court and make a layup. Imagine - these two boys were in 2nd grade wearing Dikembe Mutumbo's clothing and footwear! They both made a layup pleasing the crowd and also won some fun prizes. Unfortunately, I won't be going to any Playoff Games in Denver (or in NO for that matter). However, I will be rooting at home in either my Melo or Billups jersey - Billups for the home games and Melo for the away games to correspond to the color they are wearing at the time. Finally, that dream of having a good team is here and I really hope the Nuggets can pull it off!