It's been a busy week for the Denver Nuggets.
The team is looking to bring home its first NBA championship to Denver, and that'll require all hands on deck. Off the court, too, the Nuggets have kept that teamwork approach by assisting the community.
For the second-straight year, the Nuggets collaborated with the Arthur E. Johnson Boys and Girls Club, located at Cheltenham Elementary School in the West Colfax area. The franchise had previously worked with the Boys and Girls Club to renovate the Teen Lounge and Library, the recreational gym, among other parts of the club. On Friday, they unveiled the revamped STEM Lab, or Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Lab.
The STEM Lab was given a Denver Nuggets sheen, and children of the Boys and Girls Club will be able to use its brand-new computers to sharpen their studies. Here's a look at the STEM Lab before the renovations.
And here's the after:
The project was in collaboration with the NBA Cares program, which granted the Nuggets $45,000 for the renovations as a part of the NBA's Legacy Project during the NBA Finals.
To celebrate, the Denver Nuggets and the Arthur E. Johnson Boys and Girls Club held a ribbon-cutting ceremony. In attendance was Josh Kroenke, Vice Chairman of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment and President/Governer of the Denver Nuggets, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, as well as DeAndre Jordan, Jeff Green, Christian Braun, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Ish Smith of the Denver Nuggets team.
Altitude Sports personality Vic Lombardi served as emcee for the event, while Nuggets mascot Rocky and the Nuggets Dancers were also at the Boys and Girls Club on Friday afternoon.
The message of the day? Dream big.
Multiple Nuggets addressed the group of seated children at the event.
"I grew up around the Boys and Girls Club, and this opportunity is a great opportunity for you guys to really dream," said Nuggets point guard Ish Smith about the renovated STEM Lab. "And so use this to follow your dreams, and so with a community like this, you have to use it and soak it all in."
"Take advantage of every opportunity that you have in this building. You have this STEM center, you have this gym," said Jeff Green. "You have all these things at your fingertips. Just use it and have fun with it and embrace the moment."
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver expanded on those statements and pointed out that dreaming big doesn't just apply to hoop dreams; it can lead to an executive job like his, or really any other occupation. A learning center like the STEM Lab at the Arthur E. Johnson Boys and Girls Club, as Silver alluded to, is a great place to foster that growth.
"The reason these players are here, as great as they are in basketball, is because they worked hard," said Silver. "They decided they wanted to be great. And whether it's basketball, whether you want to have a job like mine in the League Office or some of my colleagues here, it's going to come from using this club and working incredibly hard."
Josh Kroenke, President of the Nuggets, said about his team, "These guys have to dream just like you guys do. And I think their dream right now is very focused on three more wins. The mission of KSE and Kroenke Charities is to improve lives through the spirit of power and sports. And today we're proud to make this a reality. So, thank you very much and go Nuggets."