We recap a 3–1 stretch, then turn the Nuggets into a Hallmark movie using bingo tropes, from Jokic’s “magical elder” aura to Cam Johnson’s small-town fit and Bruce Brown’s joyful return. Predictions land, humility holds, and we close with a reminder to find balance on Christmas.
• Rockets thriller as playoff preview
• Magic swings decided by a 30–6 run
• Cold night versus Rockets with foul trouble
• Jazz blowout with 24 made threes
• Hallmark Bingo mapped to Nuggets players
• Jokic as wise magic, Nurkic as old flame
• Bruce Brown’s return as the happy epilogue
• Cam Johnson thriving in structure
• Cute kids and the human side of winning
• Jamal Murray rewriting his narrative
• “Jokmas” as the season’s love story
• Predictions for Christmas and a title run
• Advice to balance hoops with family
Find some balance on Christmas. We all love basketball. It’s gonna be on all day, but you don’t need to sit there and watch it all day. Find a way to spend time with your family.
Don't forget to subscribe on Apple or Spotify and leave those 5 Star reviews!
Follow us on Social
Facebook
X / Twitter
Instagram
Episode Transcript
All right everyone.
Welcome back to Fandom fromAfar.
And you may be saying, Brian,you blessed us with an amazing
Yokemis episode just last week.
How is our new episode outalready?
Well, consider it an earlyChristmas present to you.
You're welcome.
We have a fun episode today.
(00:25):
Uh the real reason we're doingit early is I am heading out of
town on a little familyvacation, so I wanted to get
another episode in before theend of the year.
And this is going to be a funone today.
While there's not much actualbasketball to talk about because
of the NBA Cup, I thought I'dtake a stab at relating the
Nuggets to Hallmark moviesbecause you know I can relate
(00:48):
anything to the Nuggets.
First, let's do a quick reviewof the games that happened since
we last spoke.
The big one, it was a matchupagainst the Rockets, and they
are obviously, along with theNuggets, two of the best teams
in the NBA behind the Thunder.
And it was really like a playoffpreview and really an exciting
(01:10):
game all around.
I would love it to see thatmatchup in the playoffs, and the
Nuggets came out with a victoryin that one.
Next up was the Magic.
Got to watch that game with acouple of my Magic fan friends
down here, and I was the onlyone that came away happy.
The Nuggets came ahead after abunch of runs.
(01:30):
The Magic started out reallywell, but the Nuggets had a
devastating run in the secondquarter.
I believe it was 30 to 6 andkind of held on from there.
We did have another matchup withthe Rockets, and it was just one
of those games where no shotswere going in.
Jokic was in foul trouble,everyone was turning the ball
over, just not our night.
(01:51):
So we we took the loss on thatone.
And then they played the Jazz.
Now, to say that the talentlevel on the Jazz is a step down
from the Rockets would be anunderstatement.
And the Nuggets started out thegame 19 to nothing.
So you can guess that it waspretty much a snoozer from
there, but it was pretty fun towatch the Nuggets tie a
(02:13):
franchise record for the mostthree-pointers in a game.
They hit 24 of them, so that wasan easy W.
So right now, their record is21-7.
They have a game against theMavericks tonight as I record
this.
And so hopefully we can pull outanother victory before
Christmas.
(02:34):
Now, you said it couldn't bedone.
I'm going to try.
My family and I have beenwatching some Hallmark Christmas
movies this holiday season, anda lot of the movies are very
similar.
They've been going on for years,otherwise, I would just assume
that AI was pumping them out.
A lot of the times it is aoverworked, busy, big city type
(03:00):
female lead that somehow findsherself moving to a small town
and falling in love with asingle dad with an extremely
cute kid, and shenateshenanigans happen, and then
they fall in love.
And yet, my family and I lovewatching these movies.
They're just fun, get you in theholiday spirit, and I am going
(03:23):
to relate the nuggets toHallmark movies using Hallmark
Bingo.
Now, if you haven't playedHallmark Bingo, because the
movies are so similar, you canprint out some bingo sheets that
have the categories on them, andbecause each movie, it doesn't
matter which one you pick, theywill have many of these
(03:44):
characteristics in them.
I recommend printing outmultiple different kinds of
bingo cards.
It just creates fun conversationand a way to kind of laugh at
these silly cheesy movies.
So let's give this a shot.
One of the categories on thebingo card was an old romantic
interest is in town.
Now I'm going to relate that toYusuf Nurchik.
(04:06):
Now, if you'll remember fromlast week's episode for Yokemus,
Nurkic, he was our startingcenter, not quite as good as
Jokic, even back in those days,and he got replaced by Jokic and
ended up crying his way out oftown.
So while he was never asuperstar or one of our favorite
(04:28):
players, he was a Nuggetsdraftee, and we thought he had
some potential there at thebeginning.
It just didn't quite work out.
He was in town last night on aterrible Utah team, and I'm
sorry, Nerk, but we got thebanner out in the deal with
Jokic.
Another category is a wise,magical older person.
(04:51):
Now, a lot of times this personwill just be magical.
Sometimes it'll kind of behinted at that they're Santa,
but in almost every moviethere's some sort of wise,
magical older person that helpsthe two characters get together
and fall in love.
So this is a bit of a stretch.
But for this category, I'm gonnasay Jokic.
(05:14):
Now the reason being is Jokic isgonna turn 31 pretty soon.
I know.
Fellow young people, I agree,that's so old.
But Jokic is magical, so wegotta give him that.
He has turned this franchisearound, given us 10, almost 11
years of pure basketball joy,and we have obviously fallen in
(05:37):
love with him.
So I think Jokic fits with thatone.
Another category is the weddingone year later.
A lot of times this is added onas a final scene in the movie
after the characters finallycome together and show that
they're in love.
It will show one year later andcut to their wedding.
(05:58):
Very common in these movies.
And I don't quite have a perfectmatch for this one, but in this
category, I am giving it toBruce Brown.
After the championship, Bruceleft us for a big giant contract
out in Indiana.
He kind of bounced around theleague for a little bit, but he
came home.
Two years later, Bruce E B isback and he is playing so well.
(06:23):
We love Bruce E B.
Next category, it takes place ina small town.
I'm giving this one to Denver,Colorado.
If you watch or listen to anynational media coverage, you
would think that Denver is asmall farming town where people
ski down from their caves in themountains and maybe buy
(06:45):
something at the market, butthen go tend to their herd the
rest of the day.
We may not be on the east or thewest coast, but Denver is a
wonderful city.
And I'm sure there's some peoplethat fall in love at Christmas
markets there too, but we are areal big boy city.
The next category is the bigcity character goes to a small
(07:09):
town.
This one was easy.
This one goes to Cam Johnson.
He played for the Brooklyn Netsthe last couple years.
He has loved his time in Denverfrom what it seems so far.
After a little bit of a slowstart, he has been amazing.
I know Michael Porter Jr.
is putting up big numbers, butthat's just because he is
shooting every time for thatterrible Brooklyn team.
(07:32):
Cam Johnson has been a perfectfit for us.
He is playing wonderfulbasketball.
I'm excited.
I think he can still grow intohis role even more.
Nights like last night just showwhen he is on, we can dominate.
He was six for six from thethree-point line last night, and
it really wasn't close.
So Cam Johnson, you are our bigcity.
(07:55):
We'll say big city boy coming tothe small town.
Next category is just cute kid.
Like I mentioned, most of thesemovies will have a single dad
with an adorable kid.
The kid just adds a little bitof cuteness to the movie, kind
of helps the big city characterfall in love with the small
(08:17):
town.
They are allowed to be extremelyhonest because they're so cute.
And so I'm going to give this toJokic, Jamal, and AG.
The reason for that is obviouslyJokic has two little ones that
he he always tries to find themin the crowd.
They're obviously a big part ofhis life.
(08:38):
Jamal, his daughter, is gottento the age now where she's been
around quite a bit more as well.
There was some cute footage ofher at the Nuggets practice the
other day.
And Aaron Gordon, obviously,sadly, his brother passed away
last year.
So Aaron Gordon has been a bigpart of his nephews' lives, and
you often see the nephews at theat the arena as well.
(08:59):
So I think the Nuggets check thebox for all the cute kids.
And the plus side is our cutekids aren't overly cute, where
sometimes in the Hallmark moviethey smile just a little bit too
much.
And the last category, there's abig misunderstanding that almost
ruins everything.
(09:20):
I'm giving that to Jamal Murray.
Now the reason I'll say that ismaybe Jamal just misunderstood
the first ten years of hiscareer when he would come into
the season out of shape and notreally play hard until the
playoffs.
That's not happening this year.
He is playing amazingbasketball.
(09:42):
He's going to be an all-star.
And you just wish you could haveseen him play this way the first
10 years of his career, butbetter, better late than never.
So maybe there was amisunderstanding that almost
ruined everything, but Jamal,he's making us fall in love with
him all over again this year.
So it got me thinking with allthese categories, what would the
(10:04):
movie be if they made a Hallmarkmovie out of the Denver Nuggets
this year?
And I think it was pretty easy.
It would obviously be calledYokmus, a mile high love story.
And the description I thinkwould be something like a young
Serbian moves to a small town inthe mountains.
The whole city falls in love,and some awkward dude in Florida
(10:27):
makes a podcast about him.
I'd watch that.
Alright, let's hit a fewpredictions for the upcoming
games.
Obviously, I said the Nuggetsplay in Dallas tonight.
Hopefully that'll be an easywin.
My first prediction, though,will be the Nuggets lose their
game on Christmas Day becausethey always lose their game on
(10:49):
Christmas Day.
I always get so excited to watchthem at the end of the night
thinking that, oh man, the wholecountry's going to get to see
how well they're playing rightnow.
And for some reason, they justnever, never do well.
So I'm predicting they lose, butyou know how my predictions go.
This might be a little bit of areverse jinx action.
And my second prediction is theNuggets will win the
(11:10):
championship this year.
A little bit of a new strategyfor me on this one.
I am predicting more of along-term one, so I can't get it
wrong immediately.
So we'll keep track of that oneas the season goes along.
Speaking of, what was I wrongabout last episode?
Well, I actually went one fortwo.
I wasn't wrong about everything.
Jokic did have a huge gameagainst the Rockets in that
(11:31):
first matchup.
He had 39 points, 15 rebounds,and 10 assists.
I predicted a huge tripledouble, so I'm going to count
the win on that one.
Unfortunately, I did get theother one wrong where I said we
would go two and oh versus theRockets.
So one for two is not bad.
I will take it.
I always like to end the episodewith ways to be a better fan.
(11:52):
My my uh way to be a better fanthis week is just a little bit
of advice.
Find some balance on Christmas.
We all love basketball.
It's gonna be on all day, butyou don't need to sit there and
watch it all day.
Find a way to spend time withyour family.
There will be more games lateron this season.
It is okay if you don't see themall.
(12:12):
So I hope everyone has a happyChristmas and a happy new year.
I'm taking some time off.
I'm gonna go visit my family outin Colorado.
The Nuggets actually, the Magicwent to visit Denver just last
week, and then as soon as I flyto Denver, the Nuggets are
flying to Orlando.
So I am not going to get to seethem this year, but that's okay.
(12:34):
I will get to see my family.
Merry Christmas, everybody.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.