Denver Nuggets, professional basketball team and one of seven teams in the Midwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Nuggets play in the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, and wear jerseys of gold, red, and blue. The team’s name refers to the history of gold mining in Colorado.

A team called the Denver Nuggets was among the 17 clubs in the NBA’s first season, in 1949-50, but they lasted only one year. The current Nuggets franchise traces its roots to the Denver Rockets, a team that entered the American Basketball Association (ABA) in 1967. The ABA was known for open-court, high-scoring play, which suited Denver’s star guard, Larry Jones. In the Rockets’ first season, Jones registered the league’s highest single-game score with 52 points.

Another high-scoring player, forward-center Spencer Haywood, signed with the club in 1969. As an ABA rookie Haywood registered single-game highs of 59 points and 31 rebounds, averaged 30 points and 19.5 rebounds per game, and won the league’s most valuable player (MVP) award. The Rockets won their first division title in 1969-70. Haywood signed with the Seattle SuperSonics of the NBA the following season, and the Rockets had several lackluster years.

In 1974 the team renamed itself the Nuggets. Under head coach Larry Brown, they became one of the top ABA teams that season, winning 65 games. The next season, 1975-76, the team added forward Dan Issel and guard David Thompson. The Nuggets advanced to the ABA Finals but lost to the New York Nets (later the New Jersey Nets).

The ABA folded after the 1975-76 season, and the Nuggets were one of four ABA teams absorbed by the NBA. Denver finished the year with a 50-32 win-loss record to capture the Midwest Division. They were defeated in the conference semifinals by the Portland Trail Blazers.

Two seasons later, in 1977-78, the Nuggets again won their division, but they fell to the Seattle SuperSonics in the conference finals. Doug Moe took over as head coach during the 1980-81 season and guided the team for eight full seasons. The Nuggets reached the playoffs in each of those seasons and frequently led the league in scoring, averaging more than 120 points per game for five consecutive campaigns. During the 1982-83 season forward Alex English averaged 28.4 points per game to lead the league in scoring. Forward Kiki Vandeweghe, averaging 26.7 points, finished second. On December 13, 1983, the Nuggets lost to the Detroit Pistons, 186-184, in the highest-scoring game in league history.