Can Nuggets use disrespect as motivation in playoffs?
BEST OF THE WEST >> If Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns gel, they are probably the only competitor in the Western Conference playoffs to a healthy Nuggets team.
— Ryan, ready to roll
KIZ >> The Clippers in the first round would be an intriguing matchup for Denver, and I suspect more than one talking head on ESPN would pick Los Angeles to win the series. Get mad if you wanna. There’s going to be only one way for Nikola Jokic and this dusty old cowtown to get any basketball respect: Win it.
BRYANT A BARGAIN? >> Why would you put Kris Bryant back at third base and block Elehuris Montero and Nolan Jones? People always say the Rockies should play the youngsters. Well, here is their chance; may the best young man win. I wouldn’t have signed Bryant as a free agent. That said, as crazy as it sounds, $ 182 million is not what it once was; elite players are getting $ 350 million plus. Bryant did play a quarter of the 2022 season, playing very well when healthy. As long as he stays healthy, Bryant will be Bryant, even if he is a little past his prime. I don’t think this will be a good team, but predict the Rockies will still be able to say they’ve never lost 100 games after this year.
— David, sunny optimist
KIZ >> Here’s hoping you are correct. If Montero can show 25- homer thump in his bat, the staffers here at Kickin’ It Headquarters might occasionally look up from their cellphones and notice there’s actually a baseball game going on at Coors Field.
WIDE AWAKE >> I just got a call from The Denver Post saying they want me back as a subscriber. I asked if you still worked there, and the lady said she would get back to me on that. It broke my heart when I read your April 2020 column on you not seeing your mom on her deathbed because of COVID- 19 restrictions. That was a Demdemic, not a pandemic. You were not there to comfort your mother on her deathbed because of your woke beliefs, Kiz. Horrifically sad. I hope you are the next to go, you woke SOB. — C. O., pleasant fella
KIZ >> Nearly three years after my mother’s death in Tampa, I often think of all the wisdom she passed on to me. She was a strong woman never intimidated by anyone’s balderdash. My two brothers and I fought hard to get one of us by her side on the day she passed away in 2020, and remain forever grateful for that small comfort at a time when Ron DeSantis was governor of Florida and Donald Trump was president. With heart and kidneys failing, one of my mom’s last acts, which permitted her transfer from the hospital to a hospice facility where a single family member could visit, was to take a COVID- 19 test to prove she was not infected with a disease she never had. We viewed that stipulation as unnecessary red tape, but didn’t blame the government officials in charge at the time for one final bit of balderdash my mom refused to let stop her.
HAPPY TO SEE YOU >> And today’s parting shot is proof one reader actually missed me during my time off in February.
Welcome back, Kiz. Love your honest, unbiased takes. — Matt, much too kind