Following the 1983-84 NBA season, the Denver Nuggets traded star forward Kiki Vandeweghe to the Portland Trailblazers in exchange for center Wayne Cooper, forward Calvin Natt and a lesser-known point guard named Lafayette Lever.
Cooper, a defensive presence, and Natt, an intimidating defender and capable scorer, were proven veterans. But after just two seasons in the league, the returns on Lever didn’t necessarily jump off the stat sheet.
Taken by Portland with the 11th overall pick in 1982, the Arizona State point guard had started in less than half his games with the Trailblazers, producing serviceable, but not inspiring, point and assist averages.
That was about to change in Denver.
Once a Nugget, Lever flourished.
The Nuggets 1984-85 campaign will long be remembered in Denver, as the Nuggets won 52 regular season games en route to the Western Conference Finals, where they fell to the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers.
Lever was a major reason for the unprecedented run.
Lever arrived in Denver quietly, but his game in a Nuggets uniform was as loud as McNichols Arena.
While running Doug Moe’s fast-paced, high-scoring offense, Lever’s numbers took a major leap.
With the ‘Blazers, Lever scored at a clip of 8.8 points per game. During his first year in Denver, that number soared to 12.8.
But the 6-foot-3, 170-pound point guard could do more than score.
In his first season with the Nuggets, he doubled his rebounding output, grabbing 5 boards per game. He was an assist machine, too, dishing at a clip of 7.5 per night, spreading the ball to Natt, Cooper and the great Alex English.
And best of all, Lever was a ferocious perimeter defender, swiping 2.5 steals per game.
In the playoffs he was even better.
In fact, in the Western Conference Semifinals against the Jazz, Lever averaged a triple double at 17.0/11.0/10.3.
In just one season, the guy everyone called “Fat” had already left his mark on Denver.
And it didn’t stop there.
Long before Nikola Jokic was putting up triple-doubles in the modern game, Lever was ahead of his time in that regard.
Over the course of his career, Lever amassed 43 regular season triple-doubles, retiring with the fourth-most of all time (behind Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain and Larry Bird). Even today, Lever still ranks 13th on the all-time triple-double list.
“He may have the best work ethic of any player I’ve ever seen,” Moe once told Rocky Mountain News reporter Kevin McCullen. “No basketball player could ever have better work habits. You never see him go out there and go through the motions. He plays hard all the time. His effort is always at a maximum level.”
Though his time in Denver was relatively short — just six seasons — Lever became one of the best Nuggets of all time.
He was a two-time NBA All-Star, earned 2nd Team All-NBA in the 1986-87 season and was named to the 1988-89 All-NBA Defensive 2nd Team.
Lever still ranks 6th all-time when it comes to steals per game.
In basketball, numbers rarely tell the entire story. But in the case of Lever, they speak volumes for one of the quietest — and greatest — Denver Nuggets.
By Doug Ottewill, Mile High Sports Magazine
