DENVER — She’s trying her darnedest not to put boo and boo together. But every time Nikola Jokic opens his mouth lately, Nicole Werner wonders if he wants the heck out of Denver. “I get that he’s not, like, the lovable goofball anymore,” Werner, a longtime Nuggets fan from Littleton, told me Tuesday. “He’s become just kind of like … stern. I feel like that could definitely affect his legacy. ...

The Denver Nuggets' Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic walk to the bench during the fourth quarter of the Golden State Warriors' 134-114 win at Ball Arena on Oct. 26, 2026, in Denver.

AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post/TNS

DENVER — She’s trying her darnedest not to put boo and boo together. But every time Nikola Jokic opens his mouth lately, Nicole Werner wonders if he wants the heck out of Denver.

“I get that he’s not, like, the lovable goofball anymore,” Werner, a longtime Nuggets fan from Littleton, told me Tuesday. “He’s become just kind of like … stern. I feel like that could definitely affect his legacy. And that’s not something he should allow to happen, because his legacy, up to this point, is pretty stellar.”

He’s the next face to grace Denver’s sports Mount Rushmore, chiseled between John Elway, Peyton Manning and Joe Sakic in the rock of Front Range immortality. So why is a man who’s slayed more dragons than Vhagar from “Game Of Thrones” getting worked up about October booing at home?

“If they ask me, (booing fans) are not welcome anymore,” Jokic said after a come-from-behind overtime win over the New Orleans Pelicans at Ball Arena.

“I’ve never heard (of fans doing) that,” Jokic told reporters late Monday after a home loss to Golden State. “I mean, probably, they are. But I think they are not real fans.”

Werner’s been known to boo at Ball Arena before, and she’s as real as they come. She and her husband, Evan Yokum, even got engaged during a Nuggets game in October 2024. Evan was so committed to the bit, he sewed an extra pocket into his pants to hide the ring so it wouldn’t “ping” the Ball Arena metal detectors. He wanted to propose to the woman he loved in front of the team they both loved.

“She had no idea it was coming,” Yokum recalled, laughing.

Two years ago, they got married at the courthouse wearing matching Nuggets hoodies. Now they’re wondering if the Joker wants a divorce.

“Taking a hard stance like that, and telling people not to even come back if you boo?” Werner said. “Yeah, that’s diva behavior.”

“It’s like he seems very frustrated and just — he’s kind of exhausted by it,” Yokum added.

Jokic has been eligible to sign a long-term extension with the Nuggets each of the last two summers. Only instead of putting pen to paper, he’s kicked that can down the road. The Joker has said he’s a Nugget “for life.” But that won’t stop the paranoia. Or the conspiracy theories. If you did want to start exploring a path out of town, criticizing fans isn’t a bad place to start.

“It doesn’t seem like his heart is in it.” Yokum said. “He’s been acting as the coach half of the time, and he always said he doesn’t want to coach. You watch every timeout, and half the time he’s the one sitting there with the whiteboard, writing out the plays, telling people what they need to do better.”

‘I am on Joker’s side’

Nuggets Nation is united in its love for Jokic, the Elway of Denver hoops. Yet the ones I talked to this week were divided when it comes to the Joker clapping back at fans who boo.

Ava Pecherzewski of Longmont, a Mile High basketball fan for two decades now, was there for Saturday’s home opener. And while she was disappointed with the Nuggets’ start to the New Orleans game, she left even more disappointed in the arena’s response.

“As someone who raised children and managed employees, negative reinforcement is not motivational for people,” Pecherzewski noted. “Silence, to me, is a better reaction, because they can hear that you’re disappointed when you’re quiet.

“Let’s just say I am on Joker’s side on this particular topic. Because real fans can show their disappointment in ways that are not disrespectful to the team.”

To paraphrase the late, great Sam Wyche: You don’t live in Philly. And thank goodness.

“I don’t think there’s a right or wrong,” Nuggets fan Jon Reinemund of Englewood told me Tuesday. “I think a fan has a right to do that, but … there are implications. And I think a culture gets set.

“From my experience of the last 10 years of being in (Nuggets) games, this is not a fan-booing environment. I imagine it’s an emotional reaction to boo. I’ve booed at a game, but I can tell you it’s at referees and opposing players. I can’t imagine booing the home team … I think for the opposing players, if I heard that, I’d be like, ‘Oh, we’ve got them now.'”

Jokic, the greatest player in franchise history, pulled this wagon all the way to the mountaintop, higher than any Nuggets team before or since. The Joker was the key that unlocked an NBA title, a dominant postseason run for the ages, a parade and party they’ll never forget, and the kind of smiles that last a lifetime. That’s an awful lot of hoops capital, and a ton of grace, built into the account that No. 15 can draw from.

But there’s also everything that’s happened since, say, May 2024, too. They see the missed opportunity, the open goal, that was blowing a 20-point lead at home to Minnesota in the Game 7 of the ’24 Western Conference semis. The see a dynasty that has yet to materialize. They see a roster, a coaching staff and a culture that’s drifting, the way a bottle does on the open sea, farther and farther away from what was built here under Tim Connelly. They’ve seen this story before — only it’s the tale of the Giannis-Era Milwaukee Bucks, not the Duncan-Era San Antonio Spurs.

“I don’t see a soul to this team,” Werner said. “And it makes me so sad because I’ve been watching Jokic and Murray the whole time — 50 plus games a year watching them grow. (I watched) Jokic become possibly the greatest player ever, just right before my eyes. (I watched) Murray finally become an All-Star last year, which we all knew he could do. And I feel like the Kroenkes are just wasting what we have — and it’s the only time we’ve ever had it in history. It’s probably the only time it’s going to happen. Because how many Nikola Jokics are there that are ever going to exist?”

‘Bungling the greatest opportunity in basketball’

Werner caught the Nuggets bug when she moved here in 2008. Nicole saw George Karl get ejected in person, and stayed hooked ever since. She bought season tickets from 2018-2024, riding the Nuggets’ climb from young up-and-comers to the Western Conference Final in ’20 and an NBA championship three years later. She founded the “Nuggettes Nation” fan club in 2023.

Nicole says the real tension brewing at Ball Arena is between Josh Kroenke and Nuggets fans — the players’ ears, and egos, are collateral damage. It’s part of why she stopped buying season tickets two years ago.

“They trashed the team, getting rid of everybody that actually had chemistry together,” she said, “and a sense of camaraderie and that the fans actually were familiar with. And (management) hasn’t done this to us in a really long time.

“(And the team is) calling me and begging me to get season tickets again when, two years ago, the prices went up insanely after the championship. I feel like they’re bungling the greatest opportunity in basketball. And I feel like that’s what has made everybody so angry.”

But not at the Joker. Reinemund has three kids between the ages of13 and 6. They’ve literally grown up in the Jokic-Murray Era. Dad joked that they’ve bought 12 replica jerseys over the years and nine of them are some version of the Joker’s iconic No. 15.

“It’s been such a glorious decade,” Reinemund said, “that it would be heartbreaking if it soured — if it faded in a sour way.”

When Nicole and Evan looked at the Nuggets in 2019 or 2022 under coach Michael Malone, they felt a vibe of “we” over “me,” a talented roster that still checked its agendas at the door, then left it all out on the floor. When Werner and Yokum look at the Nuggets in the fall of 2026, it feels like a typical NBA team dealing with typical NBA … stuff.

“Definitely Jokic and Murray should be showing more of a good, healthy relationship with the fans,” Werner said. “People are booing because we 100 percent know they can do better. And so why are we buying tickets to watch, a half-(expletive) effort from some people that could absolutely be bringing us another championship? It doesn’t seem like the drive is there for everybody to work together towards a goal like there was in 2023.”

Werner was on hand Saturday night, too. She says she didn’t boo, even during the Nuggets’ sluggish start.

“I have not booed anybody (in a Nuggets uniform),” Nicole said, proudly.

She paused.

“Well, except for ‘Melo. Right before he left.”

Love means being able to forgive. Sometimes it also means letting go. The real danger for the Kroenkes isn’t hearing Nuggets fans like Nicole boo. It’s when they don’t hear anything at all.