The Offseason is almost over! We are Back!

After an unexpected summer break, Fandom from Afar returns with renewed energy and a streamlined focus on Denver Nuggets coverage. What started feeling like a chore has been transformed back into a passion project with some exciting changes for the podcast's future.

• Focusing exclusively on solo Nuggets episodes rather than guest interviews
• Redesigned podcast logo to mark this fresh start
• Appearance on "Serbian Corner" podcast helped rekindle enthusiasm for Nuggets talk
• Replay of the first episode showcasing the host's lifelong Nuggets fandom journey
• From Michael Adams to Dikembe Mutombo to working as a Nuggets ball boy
• Carmelo Anthony era through the rise of Nikola Jokić and championship basketball
• Excitement for the upcoming season with training camp starting in San Diego
• Appreciation for modern resources that make being a long-distance fan easier

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome Back and Summer Break
• 1:10 Changes to the Podcast Format
• 3:04 Serbian Corner and Rediscovering Fun
• 4:49 New Logo and Original Episode Replay
• 6:08 My Nuggets Fandom Journey Begins
• 11:51 Ball Boy Years and NBA Reality
• 17:35 Carmelo Era to Championship Team
• 22:01 Modern Fandom and Looking Forward

Transcript

Brian: 0:04

Alright everyone. Welcome back to Fandom from Afar. We ended up taking quite a summer break from the podcast. It was unexpected, but I think necessary. I needed a bit of time just to recharge the podcast had ended up feeling more like a chore, and it should be fun. Like we're just sitting around talking about the nuggets, and it just started kind of feeling heavy, like it was something that I had to do. And so I took a break, kind of reevaluated what I wanted the podcast to be. Or I was even thinking, do I continue with the podcast? And I am happy to say I have decided to continue to do the podcast. I'm feeling great after just kind of taking a break and stepping away. And I'm excited for the season. So I'm excited to do this for at least one more year and we'll see where it goes from there. But definitely going to make some changes, not only just for myself, but hopefully for you, the listeners, will enjoy as well. I'm just going to focus on the nuggets. I was trying to balance doing the nuggets episodes with the interview episodes, and I loved the interview episodes. I had so much fun talking to family and friends just about their team, or in the example of the Hall of Fame episodes, that was a fun experience that I got to do with the family. But those episodes definitely take a lot more time. They take planning, editing. So there's there's a lot that goes into each episode, but even more so when it's with a guest. And I again I'm just trying to focus on having fun with the podcast. So I think I'm going to focus on just the solo episodes where I talk about the nuggets and we'll see where that goes. I'm I may bring back the interviews in the future, but for right now, my plan is to just do nuggets-focused solo episodes. So I hope y'all enjoy those. I do want to thank each and every one of my guests that did one of those interview episodes with me. I thought they turned out great. I loved some of the stories that I heard, and I think they were a great part of the podcast, and this will just be kind of a new era for the podcast. Like I said, part of the reason I had step away is because I was feeling kind of burnt out. But another reason is there just wasn't a lot going on. Once free agency passed, the Nugg didn't really have any of our key young guys playing in summer league. And so there's been kind of like a dead period. So I took advantage of that. I took some time off. But one thing I did get to do was I was a guest on another Nuggets podcast called Serbian Corner, and pretty much just played some Nuggets trivia with the host Miroslav. And it was so much fun. And it just kind of was part of part of what kind of re-energized me is just remembering, hey, talking about the Nuggets is fun. Podcasting should be fun. And so that's that's my main goal for this upcoming season is just to have fun with the podcast. I'm excited to be doing it. I'm looking forward to doing it. I have some ideas. You know me, I like to kind of spin it and and relate the nuggets to whatever pop culture stuff is going on. So I think it's going to be a good time, and I hope you enjoy listening to it as well. You may notice with this episode, I've also kind of redone the logo for the podcast. It's kind of part of that just kind of fresh start for fandom from afar. So I hope you enjoy the new logo and obviously the new episodes as well. One thing I thought I'd do just for fun with this little update episode is after I'm done speaking here, I'm going to include the audio from the first episode when I talk about my Nuggets fandom journey. And I listened to it this morning. It was kind of fun to listen to. This this was two years ago, right after the Nuggets had won the championship. You could tell I was just excited to be talking into a microphone and talking a little bit too fast, and just didn't really know what to expect with the podcast, but it was fun to listen to my journey again. And I hope if you guys haven't heard it, you'll enjoy that as well. And obviously, so much has changed in the last two years with the Nuggets, not only with players, but the coach, the front office, and the expectations. So when I recorded that episode two years ago, I was thinking the Nuggets were going to be just beginning a dynasty, and we would be contending for the championship for years to come. And obviously, the last two years have not worked out that way. It's really tough to win a championship, let alone mini championships. And obviously, I've kind of talked about that in every episode along the way, but it was just kind of fun to hear Brian from two years ago with all this hope of what this Nuggets team was going to be still coming off the excitement of that first championship. And so I think I'm kind of back to that spot just because the Nuggets have had such a wonderful offseason and there's amazing expectations for this upcoming season. And when it all comes down to it, the Nuggets have the best player in the world. So we always have a shot when Jokic is on the team. So I hope you enjoy the audio that I'm about to play of the very first episode of Fandom from Befar. And there will be new episodes coming soon as the Nuggets are getting ready for training camp in San Diego. I'll go over that. I'll review the offseason. And before we know it, the regular season will be starting. So thanks for listening to this update, everyone. Enjoy the replay of episode number one. Today I thought I'd uh go over my nuggets fandom journey for you, just to kind of give you an idea of where I come from. The Nuggets are my my number one team. I love all my Colorado teams, but the Nuggets are kind of number one for me. And it's been an interesting journey. For a long time, it was not cool to be a Nuggets fan, so it's definitely interesting to kind of be at the top of the mountain now with them just winning their very first championship will, which I will talk about quite a bit in future episodes. For a long, long time, the Nuggets were kind of a joke, and it kind of makes this championship this year even better and more satisfying because I watched so many games where they were the laughing stock of the league. And if you lived outside of Denver, you didn't think about the Nuggets. In fact, you got them confused with the Utah Jazz or the Indiana Pacers. When I moved down to Florida, that was that was very common, actually, is people getting those teams confused with the Nuggets because they're just not on anybody's radar. They aren't covered on national TV until the last couple years. And yeah, they were just our our lovable losers, but obviously that's changed and it's been fun to kind of see that team turn it around and hopefully we'll kind of be dominant for the next couple years. So let's start with little young Brian growing up in the 80s. I don't really remember much about the 80s Nuggets. My very first favorite player was Michael Adams, which, if you are not a diehard Nuggets fan like me, or if you're half my age, then you probably have never heard of Michael Adams. He was a tiny little point guard. I looked it up, he's listed at 5'10, which means he was probably more like 5'8, 5'9, but he could hit threes, and I just thought it was so cool that this little guy was running around and scoring so much. In the 1990 season, he actually averaged 26 and a half points, which is crazy for someone that size to kind of fill it up that much. So he's the very first nugget that I remember really liking. I remember my dad took me to get his autograph one time, and I just thought it was the coolest thing that he we wasn't much bigger than me, and I was only nine years old at the time, and he was just killing it out there on the court. So Michael Adams kind of started it all out for me. Truthfully, don't remember much about those teams besides Michael Adams. Like I said, they were not good. The 90s themselves pretty much were not good, but there was a little little blurb in there where the Nuggets kind of put put some talent together, and they of course had that famous upset of the Seattle Supersonics in '94. The the iconic image of Matumbo laying on the ground hugging the ball. That was just one of the coolest things. I I was right at the right age where that meant the world to me just because I was obsessed with the Nuggets. So I was right around 13 then, and I just thought the guys on the team were so cool. It was Matumbo, Lafonso Ellis, Bryant Stith. We had Reggie Williams, Robert Pack, and Mark Macon. So it was a fun team. Obviously, I was a kid. I didn't I didn't I didn't know any better. I just thought they were awesome no matter what. But the fact that they were the first eight-seed to defeat a one-seed making history, it was just so cool. That kind of that hooked me. I I I was in it for life at that point. Like that was just so fun to watch those games and just to pull off the upset like that was really memorable. After that, injuries to Lafonso, Matombo ended up leaving. It it got dark quick. We had a few 500 seasons, and then by the end of it, we were almost breaking records for the fewest number of wins in a season. And actually, my sister and I became Nuggets ball boys or ball kids at for the 97-98 season and the 98-99 season. So I got to see some of those historically bad teams every night, and I got to see them up close because being a ball boy was awesome. Like I I look back on that fondly, but man, looking looking at the teams, they were bad. In the 97-98, my first season as a as a ball kid, they won 11 whole games. It's probably I I I can't even imagine how they won that many. But the following season they really improved up to a big 14 wins. So in my ball boy career, I got to see a total of 25 nuggets victories. So I would say I'm I'm I'm good luck. Being a ball boy, there there were so many fun things that that happened, but it was kind of funny looking back on it because part of our perk of being a ball boy, we were given tickets to the game, and obviously they were terrible. So the ticket office would give me as many as I wanted, and I couldn't give them away. Like, like I said, it was not cool to be a Nuggets fan. So I had free tickets ready and available, and I don't think people took me up on them very often at all. So my how things have changed. It was fun to be in the arena, kind of be around the players. We we were corporate ball kids, so we weren't the locker room guys that were there behind the scenes helping out in the locker room. We were more on the court, kind of getting things set up before the game, helping out with the timeout activities or the halftime activities. Big part of our job was blowing up those long skinny balloons to hand out to fans to distract the players while they're shooting free throws. So we would sit in the back hallway and just blow those up, and then we'd have a few things to do during the game, but other than that, we were pretty much getting to watch the game, and so it was so fun. That that was when I first realized that NBA players are just built different. Like the worst player on those 11 and 14 team or 14 win teams, they would warm up before the game and I would rebound for them sometimes, and they can't even get on the court for those terrible teams, and they're just draining every shot. Like they were amazing basketball players. It's just a whole nother level. Like it it that's it hit me hard because obviously me playing around with my friends just on driveways or in little rec league games and everything. I thought I was decent, but oh my goodness, these guys were they're they're I can't believe they're the same species as us. It was it was really fun. After the couple years of being the ball boy, the team really kind of transitioned. Some of the guys that were on the team when I was a ball boy, Danny Fortson, I really liked. He was kind of an undersized power forward from University of Cincinnati. I just liked him because he was tough. Like I said, he he wasn't really huge, but he was thick and he was strong and he he could rebound like crazy. But I always really liked him. Bobby Jackson was a young point guard on our team. He he went on to be pretty good for teams like the Kings. I think he he did really well for them. But yeah, there wasn't a ton of talent. Like none of the players did much that I'm gonna be sitting around talking to my grandkids about, but it was just really fun. Like, even like I said, when we would rebound for them, just kind of making small talk or just kind of being a part of their warm-up routine was really fun for for a 16-17-year-old kid. That that was that was the dream. So in the late 90s, it was all about Sports Center. I would watch Sports Center so many times, it was kind of ridiculous. But it was just fun because if you got to see the new highlights or you had your favorite anchors, back then it was Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann were were kind of the the lead guys, and I just thought they were so funny. But I I loved Craig Kilborne, Stuart Scott, those guys, it they just kind of it made watching the highlights fun. And obviously, we didn't really have the highlights on internet or anything, so it was just Sports Center all the time in my house, and so obviously the nuggets were not on there a ton, but it was still fun to watch the the big guys then, like just to see what's going on around the league and memorize those box scores and argue over who's better with your friends. So it was all about sports center back then during the the late 90s, early 2000s. We got Carmelo, things were looking good. His rookie year, I still to this day will argue that he just in his rookie year was better than LeBron. He should have won rookie of the year, but obviously LeBron was the chosen one, and it was kind of already decided by all the media outlets that he was going to be rookie of the year because he was the new face of the franchise or not of the franchise of the the league. And obviously that has turned out to be true, but man, that rookie year, Carmelo, he he was better. He he he was the true rookie of the year. But Carmelo, he led us to the playoffs, a lot of first round exits, just some really fun moments. He he was great. We we had some good teams, but he just couldn't quite get us to the hump. We we we made it to the Western Conference Finals and lost to the Lakers, and then he and his family decided that they wanted to become moguls and move to New York. So he was not my favorite person there for a while, but it's all good. Bas basketball hate is different than than real hate. Now that he's retired, I can look back and appreciate what he did for Denver and kind of put us on the map. Because, like I said, we were not even a real basketball team in the eyes of the majority of the country before Carmelo came, and he made us relevant for eight, ten years, and so he he's a great nugget, and I appreciate that. After Carmelo left, we did get lucky. Masai, our general manager, he did a great job in the trade with the Knicks. He kind of held out, even though it was obvious that Carmelo wanted to go to the Knicks, he held out. We got draft picks, we got swaps, we got Galinari, Wilson Chandler, like we we got decent a decent return for Carmelo, considering the fact that everyone knew he wanted to go to New York, but he didn't want to wait. He wanted to be traded, he didn't want to finish out the season and then go. So it actually worked out pretty awesome that that we were able to put together a team kind of on the fly, and the following year they kind of caught fire. I know I think they won something like 20 out of 21 home games at one point. They set the franchise record for 57 wins that year, and I think they could have done some damage in the playoffs, except for Reed and Galinari got hurt one of them right before the season ended, and the other one in like the very first playoff game. And so obviously we were we were done at that point, but it was still a really fun year. They just they were a group of guys that played well together, they played fast and won a bunch of games, but they the injuries hurt Galinari, Ty Lawson had some off field or off-court issues, and then we brought in what was supposed to be the next great coach in Brian Shaw, and the team just fell apart so quickly. He just it seems like he couldn't relate to the players and and looks like it was heading down some some dark days again. So that takes us up to 2014. And like I said, I'm I'm a lifer. This is this has been my Nuggets fandom and not very many bright moments, but got it, gotta stay with them. They're they're your team, got it, gotta love the the highs and the lows. 2014, obviously, we draft a young kid named Nikola Jokic who changed everything. He second-round pick out of out of Serbia. The story's well known, and we're gonna talk plenty about Jokic on this podcast, so I'm not gonna go into too much detail. But Jokic comes over a year later. We have Michael Malone now as the coach, he sees something in him. He tries to play Jokic and Nurkic at the same time, then he realizes Jokic is way better. Nurkic pouts and cries his way out of town, and we add Jamal Murray, so now the foundation is starting to form. MPJ comes, then guys like Gary Harris, Will Barton, Paul Milsap, who is the most important free agent signing probably in Nuggets history, if unless Bruce Brown is pretty important to our championship team. So either Paul or Bruce for most important free agent signing, but they're not huge names, but they totally changed who the Nuggets were. Paul taught the young guys how to be professionals, he made them play some defense, and I think he represents a huge stepping stone in the Nuggets becoming the champions that that uh they won this year. Then obviously everything's put on hold with Jamal and PJ getting hurt, and then Jokic decides to become the best basketball player in the world, win two MVPs and a championship. I'm sure I'm gonna go over more details in many of those eras. I love talking about the Nuggets, so I'll I'll do some deep dives back into some of those previous teams. I of course have to talk about the championship run and what that team was last year and what hopefully they're gonna be again this year. I will say it's been nice last couple years, just with different companies coming along, technology obviously, to be able to follow the Nuggets, the Broncos, all my Colorado teams, either through social media or a wonderful company that I love so much is uh DNVR. They have awesome coverage of all the Colorado teams. So it's been great following them and just being able to be part of the fandom again. Whereas when I first moved down to Florida, I had to depend on ESPN or back then it was Fox Sports One or places like that to talk about the teams. And if they did, it was maybe one highlight here or one comment there, like it wasn't much, and so just how it is nowadays is just so so much better, and it's just so much more fun to be a fan with the options that we have now. But it'll be fun to talk to these other fans and see how how they grew up with their fans and how they have changed their fandom living far away, or how often they go back to that city to go to a game, or just to how often do they interact with their friends or family that they still have in those cities. So so I hope you'll enjoy the conversations that I'm gonna have with these fans. I hope you'll discover things and tools and resources that can make you a better fan to follow your team. And yeah, I just love talking about sports and just how it can bring people together. So I really appreciate you joining me for this first episode of Fandom from Afar. And that was the first episode of Fandom from Afar. I appreciate listening. And like I said, the Nuggets will be back in just a few days to start training camp, and so will Fandom from Afar for the third season and hopefully another championship season. Thanks for listening, everyone.