As we all saw Thursday night, the Denver Nuggets blew the Miami Heat out of the water, 104-93, to get the Game 1 win to go up 1-0 in the 2023 NBA Finals. And one of the main reasons for that is Denver’s altitude. It’s obvious that Miami was affected, looking exhausted and out of sync the entire game. And that altitude could be a top contributor to the Nuggets winning the title.
But my Heat weren’t the only ones shook by the altitude, so were two Hall of Famers — Charles Barkley and Grant Hill.
The pair were doing coverage for NBA TV’s pregame show before Game 1’s tip-off and at one point during a commercial break both Barkley and Hill were forced to put on oxygen masks to combat the Denver altitude.
It’s a funny scene, but it truly shows you how intense things can be to the human body in Colorado.
Thanks to some stunningly bad seats at a Rolling Stones concert at Denver’s old McNichol’s arena in ’99, I was able to see Keith duck back and nurse an O2 bottle when he wasn’t in the spotlight.
Take it easy on the booze your first few days here, too.