VIDEO: Vintage Footage of the Denver Nuggets and the Houston Rockets

You never know what treasures you’ll find on YouTube when you go searching for Denver Nuggets footage.

A few days ago, YouTube user MrTosko72 uploaded this awesome vintage footage of a game between the Denver Nuggets and the Houston Rockets that was played at McNichols Arena back in 1990:

Sure, the entire clip features color commentary from an announcer speaking Italian, but that doesn’t make it any less fun to watch.

The 1990-91 roster featured some of my favorite Nuggets of all time: Michael Adams running point, defensive specialist T.R. Dunn off the bench, Reggie Williams playing the 3, and Big Blair Rasmussen anchoring down in the middle. The squad was coached by Paul Westhead, one of the most intriguing coaches of the 1990s, despite the fact that his overall record in two seasons with the Denver Nuggets was a dismal 44-120. This also was Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf’s (at that time still known as Chris Jackson) rookie year out of LSU.

During this game, the team started 6′ 11″ Joe Wolf and 7′ Rasmussen (the early 90s Denver Nuggets version of the Twin Towers lineup, I guess?), but the ultra-athletic 6′ 9″ Orlando Woolridge still lines up for the opening tip off. That dude was a high-flyer who could straight jump out of the gym.

Watching footage from this era of the NBA is great because it’s crazy to see how thin all of the players were back then. In today’s game, there is a lot more diversity in terms of players’ builds. It’s interesting to think about how nutrition and training advances over the last 25 years have changed the game by impacting something as fundamental as players’ body composition.

Anyway, this is a perfect 5-minute diversion for a lazy Saturday afternoon. Enjoy.