“George Karl, worked on him a lot,” laughed Bernice, a dental hygienist.
Hours before Jokic hit the game-winner in Tinseltown, the three shared their favorite Jokic moments.
“Two games ago, when did the fade-away (three), and (Anthony) Davis went to go to block it,” Maldonado laughed, “and he and the coach both had a look on their face like, ‘You can’t do it, you can’t do it.’”
“I love him as a player and as a person and he’s so humble and nothing fazes him,” Chacon said. “He does it because he loves it. And I love that. He wants to do good.”
And to think: Denee didn’t want to come. Not initially. It’s bad enough that her heart’s aching. The eyes are fading, too.
“The last time I was here I could actually see them play,” she said. “(But) I love it on the radio because I get every single detail of what’s going on.”
Thank Heaven for Jokic. Thank Heaven for Nancy. Thank Heaven for angels.
“That was for Rick,” Maldonado said.
While Rick was shaking the clouds, smiling from above, Denee was fighting back tears.
Denver Nuggets. NBA Finals. At last.
“I think I would cry,” she said. “I KNOW I would cry.”
Rick Driscoll kept the angels up late Monday. Even from a mile high, you could just about hear him dancing on Cloud 9, rocking a Carmelo Anthony jersey and waving his harp at Chick Hearn and Wilt Chamberlain.
“He was a huge sports fan,” Denee Driscoll said as she watched her late husband’s beloved Nuggets clinch their first-ever NBA Finals from 1,000 miles away at a Ball Arena watch party. “And he would be thrilled right now.”
Rick Alan Driscoll, lifelong Nuggets fan, passed away this past February. He went to eight or 10 games a year, blue and gold through thick and thin. As a member of Iron Workers Local 24, he gave the skyline his hands and Chauncey Billups his heart.
“You know, it’s bittersweet,” Denee said softly before Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals between the Nuggets and hated Los Angeles Lakers. “But it’s awesome.”
Nuggets 113, Lakers 111. A 4-0 sweep. Los Angeles in tatters.
This was for Rick. For all the Ricks everywhere, the grown men who wept with joy on Chopper Circle. The Ricks who hung with a flyover franchise in a flyover town for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. And for the loved ones who went along for the ride.
“I’ve been kind of locking myself in the house,” Denee laughed.
“We’re breaking her out,” her friend Nancy Maldonado laughed.
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“She didn’t want to come,” Bernice Chacon, another pal, countered. “But Nancy convinced her.”
And what a party. They came by the thousands to celebrate Monday, a $10 ticket to history. KSE officials estimated about 9,500 turned up for Game 4.
Minus the squeaking of sneakers and thump of the basketball, it sure as heck sounded like a home game. The crowd booed Jokic’s third foul with 32 seconds left in the half. It went nuts when Nuggets coach Michael Malone got a technical in response.
PA announcer Kyle Speller shouted catchphrases with his usual 1-2-3 gusto over the …read more
Source:: The Denver Post – Sports
