Denver Nuggets Retired Numbers
The Denver Nuggets have retired 6 numbers. Each one below records who wore it, the seasons they wore it, and what earned it a place in the rafters.
Back to Denver NuggetsAlex English
1980-1990
There is a particular kind of greatness that does not announce itself. No dunks to shake the arena, no crossovers to make highlight reels — just a relentless, rhythmic accumulation of points, night after night, season after season, until one day you look up and realize the man has scored more than anyone else in the entire NBA for an entire decade. That was Alex English. That was #2. That was the Denver Nuggets at their most essential.
Why #2 was retiredDavid Thompson
1975-1982
Before Michael Jordan played a single professional minute, there was David Thompson — Skywalker — a guard from Shelby, North Carolina, whose 44-inch vertical leap and supernatural scoring made the basketball world reconsider what was possible. At NC State he led the Wolfpack to the 1974 NCAA Championship over an undefeated UCLA team that had won 88 straight games, won the Naismith Award, and was selected first overall by the ABA Denver Nuggets in 1975, averaging 26 points as a rookie.
Why #33 was retiredByron Beck
1967-1977
Every franchise has a first player, and for the Denver Nuggets — born in 1967 as the Denver Rockets of the American Basketball Association — that person was Byron Beck. He was the original Nugget, literally the first to sign a contract and wear the uniform. Beck was born September 25, 1945, in Donovan, Colorado, a small farming community on the eastern plains, attended the University of Denver, and was selected when the newly formed franchise built its first roster in 1967.
Why #40 was retiredDan Issel
1975-1985
They called him The Horse because he never stopped. Game after game, season after season, across fifteen professional years and two leagues, Dan Issel showed up and produced — averaging more than 20 points per game with a consistency so reliable it almost became invisible. That invisibility is one of the most interesting things about great players who never had the flash of a transcendent individual moment: they become the wallpaper of winning basketball, essential and overlooked until you stop and count the points and realize the man scored 27…
Why #44 was retiredDikembe Mutombo
1991-1996
The Denver Nuggets retired Dikembe Mutombo's number 55 because the case was complete and obvious. Mutombo came from Kinshasa to Georgetown on a USAID scholarship to study medicine before John Thompson developed him into the fourth overall pick of the 1991 NBA Draft. In Denver, the transformation was immediate: he averaged over three blocks per game in every one of his five Nuggets seasons, establishing himself as the best shot-blocking center in the world.
Why #55 was retiredDoug Moe
Coach 1980-1990
1 of these 6 numbers are still awaiting a full write-up.