Before Denver had the Nuggets, there were the Larks – the original name given to the city’s local basketball franchise on its foundation in 1967. The lark is Colorado’s state bird, so the original name made a certain sense, but a small, unimposing passerine that rarely leaves the ground always seemed like a difficult sell as the avatar of a team playing a sport in which height and flight are two of the key ingredients for success. Eventually, the Larks became the Denver Rockets, and the team’s final name change – to the Nuggets – came in 1974.
Height always loomed as the Nuggets’ decisive advantage in this finals series – height, and their possession of the world’s best basket player – but on Monday night, as Denver sealed their inaugural championship with a squeaky Game 5 victory over Miami, the team played in a manner that seemed to pay tribute to the franchise’s original mascot: rooted to the ground, at one with the floor.
