Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
50 free Denver Nuggets trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
How well do you really know the Nuggets? This Denver Nuggets trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers that run from the franchise's 1967 birth as an ABA charter team through the Rainbow Skyline years, the Mutombo and Melo eras, and the Jokić-Murray team that finally brought the Larry O'Brien Trophy to the Mile High City in 2023. The early questions are the ones any Denver fan should nail: the mascot, the arena, the draft picks and the Finals MVP. Then it gets harder, with the trades, the record-book nights at McNichols, the coaches who came and went, and the odd corners of team history, from a truck-line owner naming the team the Rockets to a 168-point game against Seattle. It works as a warm-up before tip-off, a bar-trivia round, or a way to settle who in the group chat is the real Nuggets historian. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the team, its arena and its players, and each question links to the page and sentence that establishes it, so you can argue with the explanation and then go read for yourself.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Under what name was the franchise founded in 1967, before a last-minute ownership change renamed it?
Denver Larks
The name honored Colorado's state bird, the lark bunting. Trucking magnate Bill Ringsby bought control hours before a league deadline and renamed the team the Rockets.
Q 02The team was called the Rockets from 1967 to 1974 after what kind of business owned by Bill Ringsby?
A trucking company
Ringsby Rocket Truck Lines ran long-haul trucks called Rockets, and the early team logo echoed the company's branding.
Q 03Why did the Denver Rockets change their name to the Nuggets in 1974?
An NBA team in Houston already used it
The franchise was preparing to jump to the NBA and held a naming contest; the new logo showed a miner discovering an ABA ball.
Q 04Which team beat the Nuggets in the ABA's final championship series?
New York Nets
It was Denver's only ABA championship series. The ABA-NBA merger followed that summer, so the Nuggets never got a second chance at an ABA title.
Q 05In which year did the Nuggets join the NBA as part of the ABA-NBA merger?
1976
They came in with three other ABA survivors. Denver and New York had actually applied to join the NBA a year earlier but were forced by a court order to stay in the ABA.
Q 06Which team did the Nuggets defeat to win their first NBA championship in 2023?
Miami Heat
It was Denver's first NBA Finals appearance after 47 seasons in the league. The Nuggets became the second former ABA team to win it all, after the Spurs.
Q 07Who was named Finals MVP in 2023 by a unanimous vote?
Jokić
He averaged 30.2 points, 14.0 rebounds and 7.2 assists in the series, and became the lowest draft pick ever to win the award.
Q 08The Nuggets share Ball Arena with the NHL's Avalanche and which National Lacrosse League team?
Colorado Mammoth
The building hosts NBA, NHL and National Lacrosse League tenants. It opened in October 1999 with a sold-out Celine Dion concert.
Q 09Before it became Ball Arena in 2020, what was the Nuggets' home arena called?
Pepsi Center
PepsiCo held the naming rights from the 1999 opening until 2020, when Broomfield-based Ball Corporation took over as the arena's sustainability partner.
Q 10Which venue did the Nuggets and Avalanche leave behind when Ball Arena opened in 1999?
McNichols Sports Arena
Groundbreaking for the new arena took place in November 1997 on a 4.6-acre site.
Q 11What is the name of the Nuggets' mountain lion mascot?
Rocky
He has been the official mascot since the 1990-91 season and is known as the highest-paid mascot in the NBA, as well as for a long-running feud with Charles Barkley.
Q 12With which overall pick did the Nuggets draft Nikola Jokić in 2014?
41st
He was the team's first pick of the second round, taken out of Mega Basket in Serbia at age 19, and is now widely called the biggest draft steal in NBA history.
Q 13In which Serbian city was Nikola Jokić born?
Sombor
He grew up in a two-bedroom apartment with his parents, grandmother and two much older brothers, and competed in harness racing as an amateur.
Q 21In the 2020 bubble, Murray scored 50 points twice in a first-round series against which team?
Utah Jazz
His 50 in Game 4 came the same night Donovan Mitchell scored 51, the first time two opponents had scored 50 in the same playoff game.
Q 22What NBA first did Jamal Murray achieve while scoring 50 against Cleveland in 2021?
Score 50 without attempting a free throw
He also became only the second player to reach 50 while shooting over 80 percent from both the field and three-point range.
Q 23Which injury caused Jamal Murray to miss the entire 2021-22 season?
Q 14What is Nikola Jokić's widely used nickname?
Joker
The nickname plays on his surname. Away from basketball, his lifelong passion is harness racing.
Q 15When Jokić won his first MVP in 2020-21, he became the first center to win the award since which player?
Shaquille O'Neal
He was also the first player in Nuggets franchise history to be named MVP. O'Neal had won the award in 2000.
Q 16Whom did Jokić beat out for his third MVP award in May 2024?
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Dončić
He became the ninth player with three MVPs, tying names like Moses Malone and Larry Bird.
Q 17On March 7, 2025, Jokić became the first NBA player with 30 points, 20 rebounds and how many assists in a game?
20
The 30-20-20 game came in a season in which he averaged a triple-double and finished second in MVP voting.
Q 18Which medal did Jokić win with Serbia at the 2016 Summer Olympics?
Silver
Serbia lost the final to the United States. He added a bronze at the 2024 Paris Games.
Q 19Jamal Murray was born and raised in which Canadian city?
Kitchener, Ontario
His father Roger, a Bruce Lee devotee, once competed in youth sports against fellow Kitchener resident Lennox Lewis before Lewis turned to boxing.
Q 20Where did Jamal Murray play his one college season before Denver drafted him seventh in 2016?
Kentucky
His 20.0 points per game are the most by any freshman in the program's history and the most for any player under John Calipari.
A torn ACL in his left knee
He was hurt against Golden State in April 2021, weeks before the playoffs, and the Nuggets were swept by Phoenix without him.
Q 24From which team did the Nuggets acquire Alex English, the NBA's top 1980s scorer, in 1980?
Indiana Pacers
Denver gave up George McGinnis, a former Pacers star from their ABA days. English's No. 2 was retired by the Nuggets in 1992.
Q 25Beyond basketball, which art form is Alex English especially known for pursuing?
Poetry
He graduated from South Carolina with a degree in English literature and later sat on the university's board of trustees.
Q 26What was David Thompson's nickname during his Nuggets years?
Skywalker
Michael Jordan said the whole meaning of vertical leap began with him. Thompson later introduced Jordan at his 2009 Hall of Fame induction.
Q 27David Thompson scored 73 on the last day of 1977-78 but lost the scoring title to whom?
George Gervin
Gervin answered with 63 points in a game played later that same day and won the title by less than a tenth of a point per game.
Q 28Dan Issel came to Denver after winning the 1975 ABA title with which team?
Kentucky Colonels
He remains the second-leading scorer in Nuggets history and was the second-leading scorer in the entire history of the ABA.
Q 29Dikembe Mutombo was drafted fourth overall by Denver in 1991 out of which university?
Georgetown
He had arrived from Kinshasa intending to become a doctor before coach John Thompson recruited him; he graduated with degrees in linguistics and diplomacy.
Q 30Mutombo's famous finger wag after blocked shots was developed in 1992 for what reason?
To become more marketable for endorsements
He said he wanted a signature move to boost his product-endorsement appeal. It became one of the most recognizable gestures in the league.