What happens when you rank last in home attendance two years in a row?
You retire the number of someone who last played for the team 27 years ago.
Nuggets release:the Nuggets will be retiring legendary player Lafayette “Fat” Lever’s #12 jersey on Saturday, December 2, 2017 vs. the Los Angeles Lakers.
“With what Fat Lever has meant to this team, this city and our community for the past 30-plus years, it makes perfect sense to honor him by retiring his jersey during this special season,” Kroenke stated. “He is not only one of the best Nuggets in franchise history, but a great ambassador of Denver basketball as well. It is going to be an honor to have his jersey hanging in our arena.”
Lever had a fine six-season stint with Denver, making an All-NBA second team, an All-Defensive second team and a couple All-Star teams. His Nuggets teams made the playoffs each season and peaked with a trip to the 1985 Western Conference finals, though they were already perennial postseason participants be he arrived. Lever is Denver’s all-time leader in steals, and he ranks second in assists, seventh in points and even eighth in rebounds. Not bad for a 6-foot-3 point guard.
The timing is questionable, but Lever is a reasonable choice to join Alex English (2), David Thompson (33), Byron Beck (40), Dan Issel (44), Dikembe Mutombo (55) and Doug Moe (432) with a number in the rafters.