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When Jeremy Wagner started a fledgling sports blog during the Clinton Administration, he had no idea that a spitball session with Mark Cuban would eventually lead to a daily chronicle of his Nuggets. Jeremy's musings on the Nuggets -- now at Roundball Mining Company -- have been some of the most engaging, reliable coverage on the web since the dawn of the team blog. With Denver poised to make their deepest playoff run in years, we're lucky to have him as our voice of the Nuggets. 

What are you doing with a sports blog?
All my life I have been a big sports fan.  The first basketball game I remember watching was the North Carolina/Georgetown NCAA final in 1982.  The game was exciting and intense, and obviously the talent level in that game was astounding.  About that same time I discovered Dr. J. and loved watching the 76ers battle the Celtics and Lakers.
 
The blogging aspect of the equation came much later.  For most of my formative years I was probably about the last person who would voluntarily write about anything, but when I did have to write something for school I wrote about sports.  During one class when I was in eighth or ninth grade we were supposed to write for ten minutes about a story we read. After the first couple of sentences I started describing the action from a Bulls/Knicks game the night before.

In college after changing majors a couple of times and ending up on the Tommy Boy extended stay plan I ended up studying History and Political Science.  You do not get anywhere in those subjects without writing and I began to enjoy it. After that I guess it was only a matter of time before writing and sports began to intermingle.

Much like the horrible contestants on American Idol that we all laugh at I had some friends who always encouraged me to put myself out there and write. One friend in particular kept telling me I should start a blog and stop begrudging the world my tremendously deep and entertaining insight.  I did not know what a blog was, but I figured that they are letting anyone and everyone do it so I finally took the plunge and created a Denver Nuggets blog.

I wrote my first post before the fifth and deciding game of the Nuggets' 2007 first round playoff series against the Spurs basically to vent. Fast forward to today and blogging about the Nuggets is just a part of my life.  I cannot imagine not watching every Nuggets game and writing about it even though they frequently have left me at a loss for words.

When I started my first blog I never imagined anyone would find it, let alone take the time to read it.  I have been very fortunate that other Nuggets and NBA fans thought I had a voice worth paying attention to.  I have been blessed to get to know some very talented bloggers and to be involved at the ground level of this network is just mind boggling and I could not be more excited.

What, to you, is the point of a sports blog?
I believe the point of any sports blog is to provide a point of view for a team or sport that is missing from the narrative.  The mainstream media can only do so much.  The beat writers cover the games and provide the news and columnists address other assorted issues that may arise, but there is only so much room in a newspaper for content.  Their time and resources are too limited to provide all the coverage fans want.  Newspapers have added blogs and mailbags in order to allow their writers more room to share the news they gather, but it still leaves us wanting more.

In my opinion sports blogs have become popular because they fill the vacuum that the mainstream media leaves in their wake.  Most sports blogs are independent endeavors and the author can write whatever he or she wants.  Bloggers do not have to worry about his or her relationship with the team or the players.  They do not have to worry about the tone they write with and they are free to be fans.  They can express anger or jubilation that the main streamers cannot.  There is a desire amongst sports fans for commentary that is honest and real and blogs supply that.

I have been told on many occasions how readers appreciate the level of coverage I provide.  They can get the nuts and bolts from the mainstream media, but in the end, they have to write stories that the average person who may not be a fan can understand where I can write to the hardcore fan because that is who my audience is.

You had a sports website way back in 2000-2001.  You even scored an interview with Mark Cuban.  Tell us about that enterprise.
I created a website called Sports Point with a friend of mine.  It was ugly and unsophisticated, but we just wanted to write about sports and we wrote about everything.  I remember writing articles on who was smarter between football, baseball, basketball and hockey fans (if I remember correctly the winners were football fans with the key tipping point being they have to be able to translate roman numerals into actual numbers in order to tell the various Super Bowls apart), why fans of teams who win championships riot instead of the fans whose team lost (aren't angry people the ones who riot?), football picks, NBA analysis and yes we even had the opportunity to interview Mark Cuban.

My colleague noticed that Cuban did most of his interviews by email and he found his email address.  Cuban was nice enough to respond to us and answered five questions we submitted.  I can only remember one question of the five.  The interview took place right after Cuban had worked a shift at Dairy Queen as a penance about his crack about their employees that some took offense to.  Dairy Queen used to have their employees turn your Blizzard upside down to display its thickness.  I asked him out of all the people in the NBA whose Blizzard would he like to see dump out of the cup when he turned it upside down.  His answer was Charles Barkley, but unfortunately he did not expound on why.

The site was a lot of fun and we had other friends post articles from time to time as well.  I was never sure if anyone ever read anything we wrote and I am pretty sure even our mothers did not waste their time on it.  Eventually we both ran out of time and motivation to maintain it, especially when we figured out that neither one of us was going to become the next Bill Simmons.

Now that I think about it I guess we were really some of the original sports bloggers.

You've had a nice run coaching middle schoolers.  How would you describe your coaching philosophy?
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to coach my son throughout his early playing years and it was a lot of fun.  He went to a small school where almost all the boys played basketball.  There were three or four pretty good players on the team, but the talent gap from top to bottom was pretty wide and that was a challenge.

As far as any kind of philosophy I did my best to make sure everyone was having fun and learning the basics.  We did a lot of dribbling/footwork and passing drills.  One of my pet peeves in basketball is when a player makes a lazy overhead pass directly into the hands of the defender who is two feet in front of him so I did my best to preach the beauty of the bounce pass.  I also tried to make sure that every
player was comfortable shooting from the spots where the offense was designed to get them open shots and I think that helped a lot, especially for the less talented players.  They knew what to do when they received the pass in that spot and they had the confidence to take the shot without having to think about it.

From a temperament standpoint I was much more Dean Smith than Bobby Knight.  I think in the year and a half I coached them I only yelled at them once.  They had forgotten to get in the press at first the previous couple of games and they forgot once again.  I guess I snapped because I started jumping up and down and stomping my feet as hard as I could every time I landed while I yelled "Press!” in a psychotically primal vocal explosion.  I think the parents found it more comical than upsetting, but the opposing team's fans were pretty shocked and they had to be informed that I was not usually like that.

During my son's eighth grade year we only lost one game and it was by one point on a buzzer beater.  We played that team again in the conference tournament final and thumped them by 20. I retired at the pinnacle of the coaching world and I have not coached a game since ... at least until my daughter looks at me with her big brown eyes and asks me to coach her team.

For anyone who is thinking about coaching I will say that it is well worth your time.  I cannot describe the joy that overcomes you when you see them accomplish something during a game that you had worked with them in practice.  I still remember watching the first time they dumped the ball into the post, then passed it back out and swung it around to the weak side for an open shot.  It was beautiful and obviously memorable.

Can Chauncey Billups save the world?  Or, at least, the Rocky Mountain states?
Chauncey Billups was a great addition for the Nuggets.  In the offseason when I laid out the attributes for the ideal Nuggets point guard, they were the ability to defend his position, run the offense, create when necessary, play with an unselfish attitude, hit the three and be a leader on the floor.  I never expected to have the Nuggets acquire a point guard who would meet all of those characteristics, but they did.  He is a tremendous player and returning to the city he calls home has been great for both basketball in Denver and for himself.

Can Chauncey save the world?  The world could use a break from having to watch another finals appearance from the Spurs or Lakers so maybe he could have a say in that.  This is the best team the Nuggets have fielded in at least 21 years.  Unfortunately, as improved as the Nuggets are, I fear they would not be able to defeat either the Spurs (assuming Manu is healthy) or Lakers in a seven game series.  They would also have a very difficult time knocking out the Hornets or a healthy Jazz squad and Denver may find themselves matched up with one of those teams in the first round.

Pessimism aside Chauncey's presence does give the Nuggets a fighting chance and that is something they have not had in the past.  He has lead a team to a championship and that experience is huge for a group who is 4-20 in the postseason over the previous five campaigns. I will say a Western Conference Finals appearance is not completely out of the question.  Plus if Ginobili continues to be hobbled and someone takes out the Lakers before the Nuggets have to face them, there is an ever so slight chance that Denver could play in the NBA finals for the first time and in fact help save the world from more of
the same with the Lakers and Spurs.

The Nuggets have a quirky history filled with rainbow pixel-block jerseys and Maxie Miner.  What's your favorite memory as a lifelong observer?  
What the Nuggets have lacked in substance, they certainly have made up for with style and flamboyance (thank you Paul Westhead).  High points are few and far between, but I do have a top three moments that I just cannot chose between.

Going in chronological order we start out with game 79 of the 1987-88 season a time when the Nuggets were one of the top organizations in the NBA.  My Dad took me to a late season battle between the Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks.  Both teams were fighting for what was then the Midwest division title.  A big subplot for that game was Michael Adams' league record for consecutive games with a made three pointer, which has since been broken by the immortal Dana Barros.  The game was very close and I remember the crowd being electrified throughout the game.  Michael Adams had not made a three pointer all game long until he drilled one in the last minute to put the game away.  It was an amazing experience and it was made even better by sharing it with my dad.

Next we jump ahead to 1994 and the only time the Nuggets have advanced past the first round since the aforementioned 1987-88 team.  The first round matchup was supposed to be a ho hum blowout between the top seeded Seattle Supersonics and the scrappy, but clearly overmatched Denver Nuggets.  The Nuggets dropped the first two games in Seattle, but bounced back in Denver winning games three and four setting up a do or die game five.  I was out of state in college at the time and I watched the game in my dorm room.  By the end of the game I think everyone from my floor was in my room cheering on the Nuggets.  The game was an exciting and exhausting battle and I honestly the thing that pulled the Nuggets through was the magical powers of my Nuggets rainbow style jersey that we had hanging on my bunk facing the television.  Today I still have that jersey and my daughter loves to run around wearing it.

For the third and final memory we leap ahead to game 80 of the 2003-04 season.  It was Carmelo's rookie season and Denver was in a dogfight with the Jazz and the Trail Blazers for the eighth playoff spot.  Denver had not sniffed the postseason since 1995 and we were desperate to have this team prove their salt and earn a playoff spot.  Denver was facing the Trail Blazers and the way things had played out the winner was just about a shoe in to make the playoffs.  The Nuggets found themselves down by two in the closing seconds when our young face of the franchise hit a difficult 18 footer with a defender in his face to tie it and send the game into overtime.  Denver ran away with it in OT and won by ten.  What made it even more memorable was that I was at that game with my son and I hope it is a memory that he can carry with him like I carry the memory of a late season win against the Mavs that I watched with my dad.