The legends of Colorado are mostly dominated by the stars of the last 20 years.

Whether it’s Derrick White, Spencer Dinwiddie, Alec Burks or McKinley Wright IV, the stars of the Tad Boyle era are often who people think of with the Buffaloes basketball program.

When talking about the program pre-21st century, the conversation basically starts and ends with Chauncey Billups, the hometown hero who almost single-handedly revived the state of CU basketball before becoming the school’s highest-ever NBA draft pick.

As the calendar flipped to 2024 this week, it might be time to add Jamahl Mosley’s name to any list of best Buffs’ hoopers.

Now in his third year as the head coach of the Orlando Magic, Mosley is leading a young, up-and-coming team in the NBA, who had arguably their best win of the season on Friday, beating the defending champion Nuggets thanks to Paolo Banchero’s first career triple-double and a career-high 27 points from Jalen Suggs. 

It’s hard to separate wins like this one from the work Mosley has put in to building this program over the last two and a half years.

“(Mosley) is like a father figure to me,” Suggs said. “We argue, we go back and forth, we laugh, we yell. When you have somebody like that that’s a great person like that who’s leading, not only on the court and off the court, you want to work and do your best for him and help him succeed. I’ve had the pleasure of kinda starting this journey with him here in Orlando. It’s been a beauty to be along with him, so a lot of credit goes to him.”

The signature win for Mosley and the Magic couldn’t have come in a more special place for Mosley. 

“Every time I come back, it reminds me of where things started,” Mosley said pregame. “Being at the University of Colorado and then coaching here with the Nuggets — I always just think of the ability to ‘get to.’ You get to coach in the NBA, you get to be around a bunch of guys that love the game of basketball.

“It’s great to see the faces that have been here for years. But it’s just a constant reminder of the gratitude that you have to have for when you started playing the game and then coaching in the game.”

As a player, Mosley was an all-Big12 performer for a Colorado team that made the NIT in back-to-back years. But as a coach, it truly has been a ‘rags to riches’ story for Mosley as an NBA coach.

It all began back in 2005 when he moved back to the Denver area following a few years playing professionally in Australia, Spain, Finland and South Korea. Then he met past Nuggets assistant John Welch, who invited him to come to offseason workouts with some of the then-current players, notably Carmelo Anthony.

“We were working out at the Denver Athletic Club and I remember having Jamahl come down to the workouts and Carmelo was working out with different guys and (Mosley) was a great matchup,” Welch told The Denver Gazette.

From there, Mosley was given a spot on Denver’s player development staff under head coach George Karl. There was just one catch: the position, initially, was voluntary. Welch had one piece of advice for Mosley — “If you stick with this, you’re gonna be fine,” he said he told Mosley.

“I think Coach Karl would give him some cash every once in a while to tide him over, but he basically worked the first year for free,” Welch said.

As he looks back on it nearly 20 years later, after stops as an assistant in Cleveland and Dallas before becoming the head coach in Orlando, Mosley knows that what he learned in that first year with the Nuggets was priceless.

“Learning under John Welch and Tim Grgurich and George Karl and that group, it was a masterclass in so many ways,” Mosley said. “You learned how to work with players. You learned how to meet them where they were yet see their full potential in what they could become. They were tireless, tireless workers that left no stone unturned and they were going to find a way to get guys better.”

All of those lessons have translated to Mosley’s first head coaching gig.

He’s taken a listless Magic team to one of the more promising young teams in the league in less than three years. It’s his dedication to developing his young stars like Banchero, last year’s rookie of the year, Franz Wagner and others that has this team on pace to win over 40 games this season after winning 22 and 34 in Mosley’s first two seasons.

“He just has a positive energy,” Welch said. “People, players love being around Jamahl. He really does a good job connecting with people.”

None of it would’ve happened if not for his time in Colorado and on Karl’s staff.

“The way in which they cared for them selflessly was something that I take away more than anything,” Mosley said. “It was always about the players getting better and how we can help them reach their max potential. To this day, that’s what this thing is about.”