The mighty Denver Nuggets, the Western Conference champions set to begin the franchise’s first NBA Finals on Thursday, were not feeling so mighty on the afternoon of March 25, 2021.
Denver’s traveling party was gathered on a charter bus, en route to the airport in Tampa, with wounds still fresh from that previous evening, thanks to a 24-point drubbing by the displaced Toronto Raptors. That quiet ride rolled toward a flight to New Orleans while precious minutes ticked away before the league’s annual trade deadline, delayed that season as yet another byproduct of the pandemic.