DENVER • If you thought finding a two-time MVP in the second round of the NBA draft was impossible, wait until Tim Connelly reaches the NBA Finals with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Wait for it. Maybe then the people in charge of the Nuggets will care about Nuggets fans.
Nah, probably not.
Nikola Jokic is still here, as is Jamal Murray, so the Nuggets only lost the third-most-important figure in the organization on Monday. Connelly left the Nuggets to join the Timberwolves, a division rival for crying out loud, for $40 million over five years — with ownership equity, a league source confirmed. Pretty good money for anyone, let alone a president of basketball operations who still chooses a hangout based on the diversity of its happy hour options.
This was not a happy hour for Nuggets fans. Like Antonio McDyess’ knees, Raef over Vince, Melo skipping town and anything Lakers, this was another sad hour for Nuggets fans, and nobody knows sad hours like Nuggets fans. Oh, well, at least you still can’t watch the games.
The problem here is not that the Nuggets failed to match the Timberwolves’ offer. The problem here is that Stan Kroenke and Nuggets ownership should’ve awarded Connelly a bigger, fatter raise long ago, so it never got to this point. When money is no object, and it’s not with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, what’s a couple million bucks between friends? Connelly and team governor Josh Kroenke are buds, so the absence of that decision shows who’s still pulling the strings at Ball Arena. It’s Stan, not Josh; not yet.
Just doing the math, Connelly’s set to make roughly $8 million annually with the Timberwolves. Nuggets backup JaMychal Green is scheduled to make $8.2 million next season. You’re telling me JaMychal Green is more valuable to a franchise than the guy who drafted Jokic, Murray, Michael Porter Jr. and Monte Morris — none higher than No. 7 overall?
Priorities, guys. Priorities.
Look for general manager Calvin Booth to take over the big basketball decisions. He’s a swell dude and will do well in time, but he’s brand new to the chair and its pressures. Go back to the start of Connelly’s time as chief decision-maker. Nate Robinson and JJ Hickson once were Nuggets. Takes time and a lots of luck to raise your value to $40 million and ownership stakes.
What Connelly’s exit really does is serve as a reminder. It’s a reminder the people in charge don’t care about you. At all. Could be important life things, could be trivial sports things. They don’t care. They don’t care they made you buy $4.40 gas. They don’t care they created the worst inflation in 40 years. They don’t care kids bore the brunt of the COVID response. And Connelly or no Connelly, the same number of Nuggets fans will attend the next home game, so why not let the architect of the Jokic era cruise on over to a division rival?
You’re just a vote or a wallet. Focus on your family, faith, career, health, fly fishing addiction, garden, dogs, whatever you love the most. Stop caring so much about the people in charge.
Tell the people in charge to kick rocks.
His perspective is one of many reasons I appreciated Connelly in Denver. One time during a losing streak I asked Connelly how the Nuggets would break their funk. He said, “Right now, (by) taking the kids to the aquarium.” That team went to the Western Conference finals. There’s too much money in pro sports to think a family atmosphere is possible, but somehow his Nuggets made it their trademark. His kids sang “Happy Birthday” to players in the locker room. He’d say the worst part of the NBA’s COVID bubble was being away from his kids and wife, Negah. The night Connelly traded Timofey Mozgov, he took Mozgov out for buffalo wings. Jokic was only 21 and a new starter when Connelly predicted after a practice, “He’s a Hall of Famer.” TC was right, of course. Jokic is.
This Nuggets era has been a blast to watch for two reasons: One, Joker. Two, a family culture so strong they twice recovered from 3-1 playoff deficits to come back and win the series. He’d never say it, but Connelly was responsible for both. Now, he’s running the Timberwolves.
All of it seems impossible, of course. But sometimes, so does remaining a Nuggets fan.
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