Nuggets: Searching for NBA gold at the end of the rainbows

DENVER (AP) — At times, the Denver Nuggets were easy – sometimes, too easy – to love, with their rainbow uniforms, their rumpled grumposaurus of a coach and a defense-optional game plan that kept the scoreboard clicking into the 120s and 130s night after night.

At other times, loving them was more difficult, say, during those 50, 60 and 70-loss seasons in the ’90s that installed a revolving door on the coach’s office, or even during a decade-long resurgence in the 2000s when they were led by a fickle superstar who ultimately bailed for New York City.

And even now, with the Nuggets the top seed in the Western Conference, Denver has yet to be mistaken for much beyond an NBA novelty. Such is life in a league driven by superstars who are on a first-name basis with fans — Magic, Michael, LeBron and Steph — but never by a team that doesn't win titles, doesn't even play for them, and doesn't get much love even when the two-maybe-three-time MVP is on its roster.