October 31, 2009

Melo on the Right Track for MVP

Carmelo Anthony Dunks On Paul Millsap

Melo's Play Could Turn into the Dunk of The Year

Two games into the season and I am ready to gift wrap the MVP trophy and present it to Carmelo Anthony. Melo has looked nothing less than brilliant.

Opening night, Carmelo had 30 points, 8 boards, and 5 assists. Not to mention the best dunk of his career. Paul Milsap would agree and probably think twice before challenging Melo on the way to the rim again. Also, we saw the raw brilliance of rookie Ty Lawson. Ty’s quickness and knack to find his way into the paint gave the Jazz fits all night. Lawson had 17 points and 6 assists and brought much needed energy off of the bench. Chauncey Billups was solid on his way to 25 points. Billups controlled the game and played tight defense on Ronnie Brewer and Deron Williams. The Nuggets looked good on their way to a 114-105 victory. Keep reading →

October 28, 2009

Unofficially, My Favorite Day of the Year!

 

den mag

Denver Magazine Has the Keys to This Seasons Success on Their Cover

Today marks the day that myself, a grown man, wakes up before sunrise and starts getting ready for my favorite day of the year. Like a child on Christmas, peaking around the tree and shaking boxes, I am gearing up for the Nuggets’ season opener against the Utah Jazz.

 

Now it is no secret that the Jazz fall somewhere between hemorrhoids and Brent Musburger on my “Things That Irritate me” list, so nothing would make my favorite day of the year like a victory tonight. Keep reading →

October 14, 2009

Hockey in Colorado is Back

-Derek Belohrad

Last year it was tough to be a member of the Colorado Avalanche and it wasn’t any easier to be a fan.  As many of you know the Avs finished 15th in the West and to make things worse they were ten points behind the closest team (That is like being 5 games back if you are still in Baseball mode).  The off season didn’t, in my opinion, offer much hope for this year. While they did acquire some talent in Matt Duchene, they lost a great leader who possessed a lot of talent with the retirement of Joe Sakic.  Their goaltending last year was generally horrible and the acquisition of a largely untested goalie was too much of an unknown to offer much relief for next season’s doubts.

Currently the Avs are 4-1-1 and have provided some great entertainment.  Perhaps my preseason doubts were unfounded?

How quickly things can change.

Keep reading →

October 1, 2009

Guess What I’m Not Doing?

-by Alaina Scarano-Isbouts

Beer?  Check.  Pizza?  Check.  Altitude?  Check.  Nachos?  Check.  Tissues?  Check (it was Joe Sakic’s

Who the heck is this kid?

Who the heck is this kid?

retirement, after all).  DirecTV?  Check.

Tonight, my family and I sat down to watch what was possibly the biggest night in the Avalanche’s season — opening night with our brand new roster and the retirement of Joe Sakic’s famous #19.  We had everything together for a fantastic family night in and the Joe Sakic Night party.  We were ready in case Pierre Lacroix made us cry (again) and were ready to play our Avalanche drinking game for the first regular season game of the 09-10 season.  But, after an hour and a half of Joe Sakic festivities, something bad happened.

The Miss Colorado pageant came on.  And didn’t go away.

Keep reading →

August 11, 2009

What Direction Now Nuggets?

len klei

-Jeremy Kloberdanz

News this week coming out of Denver has been perplexing to say the least. The Nuggets let key reserve Linas Kleiza up and leave for Euro Ball, they have been trying to sign Anthony Carter back to the team, and are now actively pursuing the one dimensional services of Wally Szczerbiak.

Linas Kleiza, who was born in Lithuania, has opted to take his game to Europe. He signed a contract with with Greek Olympiakos worth more than $12 million over two years. Kleiza started a bit slow last year but found his stride when it mattered the most. He was a largely sought after player over the past few years and many teams have tried to deal for him. He averaged 9 ppg and 6 rebounds per game last year and was a vital part of the Nuggets advancing to the Western Conference finals. Keep reading →

August 10, 2009

Jay Cutler: Still Annoying Denver Residents

Invesco Field at Mile High

Invesco Field at Mile High

-Derek Belohrad

 In today’s Mile High Sports Daily newsletter James Merilatt runs down some of the reasons why the Denver Bronco’s once dedicated fans are a dying breed.  It is generally a good article and he makes some good points.  What really stood out to me was Cuter’s statement.  I remember seeing the headlines about him making some disparaging statements about Denver fans, but I did not bother to read the article because I have no desire to know what a 14 year old whiny girl thinks about Bronco fans.  Alas, I could not avoid his statements.

 My thoughts are this:
  Keep reading →

July 27, 2009

Joe Sakic in Ten Numbers

-Derek Belohrad

Over the weekend The Avs Hockey Podcast posted a link (via their Facebook page) to an article from The Hockey News titled “THN.com Top 10: Joe Sakic numbers”.  THN.com did a good job on finding ten numbers that could summarize the characteristics that made Sakic such an important player in the NHL and for Colorado.  My personal favorite was number 10.  When I was still coaching youth hockey I used Sakic as the example for who my players should aspire to be.  This is just another reminder that while we all in Colorado will miss him the league, as a whole, will be losing a player of great influence.

July 22, 2009

LeBron gets dunked on…

…WHO CARES!!!!

That was my first reaction to the story that LeBron James got dunked on by Jordan Crawford of Xavier a few weeks ago in a pickup basketball game at a Nike camp, hosted by James.  ESPN treated the story like it was breaking news.  You would have thought that the Hindenburg went down again!

Keep reading →

July 8, 2009

Birdman to Continue to Protect the Nest

chris-anderson

-Jeremy Kloberdanz

Many fans around Denver have been wondering how the Nuggets plan on repeating last seasons success along with building on it. Would there be any marquee deals? Who would we retain and who would we let go? What would we go after in the draft?

The first step was the draft and the Nuggets stole potentially the best PG in the class when they acquired Ty Lawson. He will complement Chauncey Billups very well off the bench and is the future leader of our team. Ty pushes the ball up the court better than most who are already in the league and can learn a lot in the company that he is in. Chad Ford from ESPN agrees that he is a great pickup as he graded each teams draft. Keep reading →

July 7, 2009

Joe Sakic to Retire from the NHL

sakic-Alaina Scarano-Isbouts

Avalanche captain Joe Sakic is expected to annouce his retirement from the NHL on Thursday.  Sakic has announced he will be holding a press conference Thursday at 1pm Mountain time to make an important announcement regarding his “hockey career.”

The Denver Post is already reporting that Sakic is retiring (of course, it comes from Adrian Dater so who knows), as is ESPN and even NHL.com.  If this is true, the last NHL game Sakic will have appeared in is November 28th in Phoenix, where he skated only one shift in the loss.  October 25th was Sakic’s last goal, in Edmonton for an Avs’ win.  Sakic lead the Avalanche to two Stanley Cup victories, in 1996 and 2001.  He is currently 8th on the all-time points list.