The eldest Denver Nugget is spry on his feet.

“I’m still walking two miles a day,” Duane Klueh tells me. “I use a walker, but I’m still walking.”

My friend, Mr. Klueh, is an inspiration and a treasure. At 97 years young, he is as irrepressible as Nikola Jokic, as sharp as Michael Malone, as game as Jamal Murray.

“I’m so happy they finally got one,” Klueh says.

It was 74 years before their first championship when Klueh played for the 1949-50 Nuggets in what is credited as the inaugural season of the NBA. His shoe deal was a free pair of shoes.

Klueh wants to thank Joker and the world-champion Nuggets — except for one thing.

“They kept me up to 11:30 a couple nights,” he says with a laugh.

They could be thanking Klueh, a true original.

Keeping with tradition, the 1949-50 Nuggets were bad-bad. They won 11 games and lost 51, finishing last and eight games behind the Waterloo (Iowa) Hawks in the Western Division.

“We just didn’t have much size,” he says. “And we couldn’t really jump that well.”

George Mikan of the Minneapolis Lakers led the league that season with 1,865 points. At his first practice at Ball Arena with the Nuggets, in October 2015, Jokic performed the Mikan drill.

I first met Klueh in March 2020. He has the best basketball stories. Dale Brown, the longtime LSU coach (“Shaq’s coach,” Klueh says), recently informed Klueh he was the first NBA player from the state of North Dakota. Brown is also from North Dakota.

“It’s nice when people keep in touch,” says Klueh, who has called Terre Haute, Ind., his home for the past 89 years.

The world-champion Nuggets had perfect timing for Coach Klueh. He suffered a fall and broke a hip earlier this year. Difficult hours of physical therapy (“My physical therapist is a Miami Heat fan”) have followed. At night, he watched Joker.

“Boy, Jokic is tough, isn’t he? He’s not going to be denied,” says Klueh, who won 182 games as the coach at Indiana State and is an inductee in the Indiana Basketball and Missouri Valley Conference halls of fame.

“I would imagine players would want to play with a guy like that. He’s a guy who doesn’t complain a whole lot. He takes responsibility. He’s always going to find the open player. I know I would love to play with a guy like that,” Klueh says.

His coach at Indiana State was the incomparable John Wooden. The pair remained close until Wooden’s passing in 2010.

“Coach Wooden, he would give you his opinion when the season was over. He once wrote me a note that said, ‘That season was unbearable,’” Klueh says. “Of course, we won a championship that year.”

Wooden “would have loved the way the Nuggets play,” Klueh says.

“They moved the ball around. They didn’t dribble the ball around. They figured out better than a lot of teams that if you get the ball down the court quickly you have more time to score,” he says. “And it’s (Jokic’s) passing. He’s so unselfish. (Aaron) Gordon and (Michael) Porter, they’re tough, too. And Murray, too. They had several angles they could come at you from.”

During the NBA Finals in Miami, the Nuggets stayed at the swanky Four Seasons. The 1949-50 Nuggets traveled by car to play the Indianapolis Olympians, Waterloo (Iowa) Hawks and Sheboygan (Wisc.) Red Skins.

The Tri-Cities Blackhawks beat the Nuggets in the first NBA game after the National Basketball League-Basketball Association merger in 1949, according to a media guide.

“It was Oct. 29th,” according to Duane Klueh.

On Christmas Day of that year, Klueh played nine holes at Denver’s City Park Golf Course.

Klueh watched 19 of the 20 playoff games, often with his two daughters.

“They really took to this Nuggets team,” he says.

Like many of us, Klueh openly wondered if we would ever see the Nuggets as NBA champions.

“It seemed unlikely, since it didn’t seem like they could attract those types of players,” he says.

Among Klueh’s teammates with the 1949-50 Nuggets were Kenny Sailors, the Wyoming grad and inventor of the jump shot, and future Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack Toomay. As men, the original Nuggets were no joke.

Klueh will turn 98 on Jan. 6, 2024.

Some Nuggets things never change: “I was glad to see them beat the Lakers 4-0,” Klueh says.

Stay spry, Coach Klueh.

***

Colorado stud of the week: Tim Connelly, former Nuggets general manager

Now president of the rival Minnesota Timberwolves, he kept a low profile during the Nuggets’ title run. But it should be noted Connelly’s impact on Denver’s basketball history.

Late in the 2015 NBA draft, Connelly was willing to “roll the dice” on a relatively obscure 19-year-old from Europe. Drafting Jokic was one thing. Cultivating a family atmosphere in the locker room, where Connelly’s adorable kids would sign “happy birthday” to players, convinced Joker to make Denver his second home.

“Go Nugs!” Connelly texted during the Nuggets’ victory lap through downtown on Thursday.

Minnesota has some tinkering to do before it can genuinely challenge the Nuggets. But I thought All-Star guard Anthony Edwards was the most talented opponent in Denver’s postseason run, and the 21-year-old’s presence should return the Timberwolves to the Nuggets’ playoff schedule again.

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What’s On Tap

Monday: Stay tuned for Kyle Fredrickson’s “NHL Insider” on the Stanley Cup-favorite Avs.

Tuesday: Jamal Murray signs autographs at the DICK’S Sporting Goods Park Meadows store from 6-7 pm.

Wednesday: The NBA draft is Thursday, and Vinny Benedetto has the scoop on Denver’s 40th pick.

Thursday: Chris Schmaedeke’s weekly “Golf Insider” returns for another installment.

Friday-Sunday: Carson Field checks in from Coors Field for the Rockies-Angels series.

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Just One Question

Did Aaron Gordon find his shirt yet?