Jun 15, 2023; Denver, CO, USA; Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic gestures to the crowd during the championship parade after the Denver Nuggets won the 2023 NBA Finals. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
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If you believe in bulletin board material, the trio of Kendrick Perkins, Chris Mannix, and Nick Wright provided plenty this season, dismissing the Denver Nuggets every chance they got. Whether it was Wright’s persistent criticism of Nikola Jokic, Mannix dying on the hill that Denver doesn’t play an “interesting” style of basketball, or Perkins recklessly alluding to racial bias in MVP voting, play-by-play man Chris Marlowe made sure to keep the receipts, thanking the “naysayers” at Thursday’s championship parade.

“I would like to thank all the naysayers out there in TV land and all over the world. The Kendrick Perkins, the Nick Wrights, the Chris Mannixes,” said Marlowe, the Nuggets’ television voice since 2004. “All the people that doubted the Denver Nuggets. That picked against the Denver Nuggets every single game of every single series. And credit to Michael Malone who used that as motivation.”

Denver certainly played with a chip on its shoulder throughout these playoffs, though Marlowe’s assertion that nobody believed in a team that finished with the Western Conference’s top regular-season record is probably a slight exaggeration. Hyperbole or not, the Nuggets were worthy champs, leaving little doubt with their dominant performance in the NBA Finals, needing just five games to dispatch the Miami Heat.

Days after his seeming annoyance at having to stay for the parade, Jokic finally cut loose, joining his Nuggets teammates in a well-deserved victory lap around the city.

The hot take industrial complex never sleeps, with contrarians like Perkins and Wright already sharpening their axes, patiently waiting for the next opportunity to cut Denver down. But it won’t be today. Try as they might to diminish their accomplishments, the best team in basketball resides in Denver, and the Nuggets finally have the hardware to prove it.

About Jesse Pantuosco

Jesse Pantuosco joined Awful Announcing as a contributing writer in May 2023. He’s also written for Audacy and NBC Sports. A graduate of Syracuse’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with a master’s degree in creative writing from Fairfield University, Pantuosco has won three Fantasy Sports Writers Association Awards. He lives in West Hartford, Connecticut and never misses a Red Sox, Celtics or Patriots game.

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