Love and Basketball
The ups and downs of being a Denver Nuggets & Abbott Elementary fan
This essay contains spoilers for season two of Abbott Elementary.
Making your own traditions is part of getting older, I guess. No longer bound to the rituals of your parents, you find things worth repeating for yourself. And maybe you trick some friends into doing those things repeatedly with you too. That’s how Nate, Sara, Elizabeth, and I found ourselves at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse for the Denver Nuggets’ first game back from the All-Star break versus the Cleveland Cavaliers.
I’ve been a Nuggets fan since Carmelo Anthony joined the team in 2003, which is to say I’ve been a Nuggets fan for 20 years. And even then, I didn’t go to my first Nuggets game until I moved to Colorado Springs, an hour away from Denver, after college.
The night before my friends and I drove to Cleveland, I shared that we got invited to tour the arena during halftime. I’m a sucker for a sales pitch, so Elizabeth isn’t surprised I’ve been in this situation before. When I lived in Colorado, my friend Skyler and I got invited to tour the Nuggets’ arena, previously called the Pepsi Center. And we couldn’t refuse when their sales team offered us discounted tickets for the second half of the 2016-17 season.
That spring, and continuing on into the next year, we saw some legendary matchups: Russell Westbrook breaking the all-time record for triple-doubles in a season and hitting a last-second, game-winning shot; Gary Harris’ revenge game-winner against Westbrook’s Oklahoma City Thunder; Nikola Jokić, before any of his MVPs, backing down LeBron James in the post then knocking down a hook shot over the King.
When I moved to Columbus, Ohio, to be closer to Elizabeth, Cleveland became the nearest city for me to see the Nuggets in person. Games are limited because the Nuggets and the Cavs play in different conferences. So although they usually play each other twice a season, the Nuggets only play in Cleveland once a year. And I wanted to be there whenever the Nuggets were in town, so it became an annual tradition for Elizabeth and me to travel to Cleveland for the game. One of our most bizarre memories is seeing the Nuggets play the Cavs on March 7, 2020, one of the last regular season games before the NBA shut down due to COVID-19.
This year, we recruited some of our closest friends in Columbus to come to the game with us. And one thing I noticed while watching is how quick I am to envision the Nuggets losing, especially if it’s a close game. I do it at home too. On every missed shot or opposing team’s score, I agonize over the Nuggets’ inevitable defeat. And as happened more times than not this year, the Nuggets went on a 13-4 run in the last two minutes of the game and beat the Cavs 115-109.
In my last two decades of following the Nuggets, this has been the team’s best start in franchise history. They’re in first place in the Western Conference, mostly healthy, and it continues to look like Jokić is poised for his third-straight MVP. And still, I worry that the Nuggets will let me down. I don’t think I’m a horrible fan; I’m mostly just afraid because I’ve watched the Nuggets fall short so many times before in so many different ways.
In the 2008-09 season, the Nuggets, led by Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups, placed second in the Western Conference and matched the most games won by the team since their NBA induction (this year’s team is sure to surpass that record). Beating the New Orleans Hornets in the first round of the playoffs and the Dallas Mavericks in the conference semifinals, the Nuggets made their first trip to the Western Conference Finals where they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers 4-2 in the series. The Lakers went on to win the championship.
Ten years later, the Nuggets tied their franchise record for most wins in a season for the second time and secured their first playoff berth since the 2012-13 season. Making it to the second round, they lost to the Portland Trailblazers in seven games. The following season, while playing in the NBA bubble playoffs, the Nuggets overcame multiple 3-1 deficits before losing to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. The Lakers would once again go on to win the championship.
Last season, the Nuggets were swept by the Phoenix Suns in the second round of the playoffs. And while I’m cautiously optimistic this season will be different, it’s hard to ignore that the Western Conference improved significantly during the NBA trade deadline. Meanwhile, the Eastern Conference lost some of its biggest stars. Kevin Durant, one of the greatest players in NBA history, joined the Suns, currently ranked fourth in the West. The Mavericks, currently sixth in the West, added Durant’s former teammate and eight-time all-star, Kyrie Irving, to team up with MVP candidate Luka Dončić. D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Rui Hachimura boosted the LeBron-led Lakers, who are currently a game out of competing in the play-in tournament to get into the playoffs if the season ended today. And even the Los Angeles Clippers, currently ranked seventh in the Western Conference standings, picked up Russell Westbrook and acquired Bones Hyland from the Nuggets. Meanwhile, the Nuggets improved slightly by adding veteran Reggie Jackson and post-scorer Thomas Bryant.
Whether it’s while watching the nightly lineup of NBA games or during dramatic shakeups like the trade deadline, more fans of the league have been talking about the “NBA Script,” which Peter Dewey described for Cavaliers Nation as a play on “the craze of people who believe that the NFL scripts its seasons.” Even NBA players have picked up on the meme. Amidst a string of in-game fights and Kyrie Irving requesting a trade from the Brooklyn Nets earlier this year, Cavs guard Donovan Mitchell tweeted, “NBA script been crazy recently 😭😭😭.” And while I know this phrase is mostly a joke, scripted television is the only other place where I experience this kind of drama and the expectation of disappointment that comes with it.
Over the past few years, the TV show that’s captured this emotional turmoil for me the most is Abbott Elementary. While it’s a great reflection of the modern teaching environment and the commitment many of our educators have to their students, the show is culturally marked by the makings of a romance between Abbott Elementary teachers Janine and Gregory, respectively played by the show’s creator Quinta Brunson and Tyler James Williams, who I know as “that kid from Everybody Hates Chris.”
In the very first episode, seeds between Janine and Gregory are planted. But in the following episodes, even as Janine and Gregory have tiny moments of connection, Janine spends the entire first season dating Tariq, her longtime boyfriend and an amateur rapper played by the ever-hilarious Zack Fox. Gregory also begins dating Taylor, the daughter of his coworker Barbara, who is masterfully played by Sheryl Lee Ralph.
When Janine breaks up with Tariq at the end of season one and Taylor and Gregory eventually end up breaking up, I had a sliver of hope that Janine and Gregory might finally end up together. But in episode six of season two, Gregory gets asked out by Amber, a parent of one of his students, played by the Youngstown, Ohio native Naté Jones. Gregory says yes, and, once again, I found myself wondering when, if ever, Janine and Gregory would get together.
Four episodes later, we get our closest glimmer of romance between Janine and Gregory up to that point when they both go out to a club on the last day before winter break. While Janine and her friend Erika are standing in line, Gregory walks up with his friend Maurice, played by rapper Vince Staples. While they’re in the club, Janine, visibly uncomfortable with putting herself out there, sits alone until Gregory comes over and joins her. After a few moments of sitting together, they agree to go dance. They start by dancing about a foot away from one another until Janine gets bumped into Gregory. Then, they proceed to dance in each other’s arms. As the music slows down, we see Janine grinding on Gregory until Ava, their principal, played by Janelle James, comes over and interrupts them.
Janine and Gregory proceed to go outside. And while they’re talking, it begins to snow. As Janine looks up at the snow, Gregory looks down at her, seemingly eyeing her lips. “Beautiful,” he says. They move closer to each other as if they’re about to kiss, and then Gregory gets a text from Amber. My hopes were dashed again. And then even more so as Maurice approaches Janine at the end of the episode. A few episodes later, Maurice eventually asks Janine out.
We’re more than halfway through the season by this point, and it’s, unfortunately, looking like the timing will never be right between Janine and Gregory. I’m pretty much expecting to keep getting trolled by the writers. The script been crazy, as they say. But in episode 16, after multiple seasons of waiting, we finally get it: the kiss. And we didn’t just get a kiss but a newly single Gregory alone with Janine in the most picturesque, closed botanical exhibit at the Philadelphia Teachers Conference. Taking in the beauty, they share how they view teaching as a place of growth—similar to how the flowers around them started with a seed and sprung into something beautiful.
As they’re talking, they hear a noise and crouch down to hide. And it’s on that floor where Gregory suddenly leans in to kiss Janine. They kiss for seven seconds, which feels like an eternity. Afterward, they begin to separate as if they might regret it. But as that happens, Janine pulls Gregory back towards her by his conference lanyard. They kiss for ten more seconds—even past the commercial break.
Watching it happen, I immediately felt breathless. There’s a tension that arrives when something that feels imminent is prolonged. That slow burn is a physical reaction for the audience, not just something that plays out between characters on the screen. For example, in one of the sexiest scenes in movie history, Love & Basketball’s Monica and Quincy, played by Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps, find themselves at the school dance with other people. Their dates are gorgeous (Lathan with Boris Kodjoe, and Epps with Gabrielle Union). But when Monica and Quincy are out on the dance floor and Zapp & Roger’s “I Want To Be Your Man” begins to play, they can’t help but stare at each other while dancing with their dates.
The longing feels as palpable for the viewer as it does for Monica and Quincy. It’s an exercise in patience and expectation. And the thing about waiting is the more time you wait, the more doubt creeps in. But as Belen Edwards (Mashable) wrote about Janine and Gregory’s slow-burn romance in Abbott Elementary, “I have never been happier to have been wrong.”
At the end of this NBA season, I pray the Denver Nuggets give me that same satisfaction; that they play according to my script, which means seeing the players I’ve long supported hoisting up the Larry O’Brien trophy while confetti rains down; that the soon-to-be, back-to-back-to-back MVP, Nikola Jokić, earns the ultimate goal, which may finally absolve him of being continuously viewed as a league-approved fluke. This is me learning to believe the best, to imagine another outcome—an act that feels extremely difficult, almost impossible at times, when death is the only thing seemingly promised in our world.
Love and basketball begin to feel trivial when we live beneath systems marked by violence and destruction. But slow burns teach us that the little things are actually the big things. Every brush, every bit of flirting with closeness, every little sliver of connection shows us what’s possible if we hold on; if we stay tuned.
“It gets greater later,” Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon said in an interview the week following the 2023 NBA All-Star Game, a game in which Gordon hoped he’d get to play and believed he deserved to be a part of. “I know if I can be patient and play my cards right now, and listen to the coaching staff and training staff, that I’m going to be a big, big piece in our run down the stretch and helping this team win as long as I’m as healthy as I possibly can be.”
When asked about not making the All-Star Game, Gordon replied, “I’m going to be real with you guys: It hurt me not being in that All-Star Game this year.” He continued, “If I feel like I wasn’t focused on the mental aspect of it and understanding it’s going to get greater later—there’s a bigger picture—that it would have, like, pulled me into a negative thought process and a negative mentality.”
As someone intimately familiar with these feelings of disappointment, I understand how all-consuming they can be. But if all goes according to the script, it gets greater later. And maybe at the end of this NBA season, I’ll have a new tradition: telling everyone I know about that time the Denver Nuggets finally went in for the kiss.
ICYMI! Starting March 22, every fourth Wednesday of the month at 7 pm ET, I’m hosting Shut Up & Write at Two Dollar Radio Headquarters, a family-run indie bookstore, performance space, bar, and vegan cafe located on the South Side of Columbus, Ohio. If you’re in the city, I hope you’ll join us later this month for an hour of writing. And if you know anybody in Columbus who might be interested, please share!
When: March 22, 2023 at 7 pm ET (& every fourth Wednesday of the month after)
Where: Two Dollar Radio Headquarters on the South Side of Columbus (1124 Parsons Ave)
So, with respect to love, does an underlying message of this piece mean that your love for the Nuggets is second to your love for Elizabeth, since you moved away from Denver (and the Nuggets) to be closer to her? ❤️