Game Time: Nuggets 109, Spurs 96

What to make of this incredibly talented and quixotically erratic Denver team? Can they be legitimate players in the postseason tournament? Or is just making the final cut all they can hope for?

The Nuggets' glorious win at home against the defending champs demonstrated what they have to do to be an extraordinary team.

Must-read:

• Goodman's latest Stock Watch
• Whitlock: Lessons from 'The Wire'
• Sign up for Fantasy baseball!

Must-see:

• Schein: Fitzgerald plays Cards
• Billy Crystal in pinstripes

For more videos, click here.

Must-know:

• Strahan: Favre, Sapp could sway me

For all of today's rumors, click here.

Top headlines:

• Pitt knocks off Louisville in OT
• W.Va.'s Devine pleads no contest
• Billy Crystal whiffs in only at-bat

For all of today's top stories, click here.

Worth a thousand words:

• College hoops tourneys
• NBA Cheerleaders

For more photos, click here.

Twenty years later, Dr. Dim chanced to see Ralph Branca at a fancy Fifth Avenue wedding celebration.

"I was playing accordion in the band," Dr. Dim says. "When I spotted Branca, I grabbed the mike and said, 'Ladies and gentlemen! I'd like to take a moment and introduce the bum who cost me my house!' ... Let me tell you something, Charley. They don't call me Dr. Dim for nothing."

As he approaches his 75th birthday, Dr. Dim still plays basketball twice every week at the McBurney YMCA in New York, where he's renown for his running two-hander.

"Actually," he confesses, "I stink. But I still love to play basketball. You can have fun even if you stink. That's my message to mankind."

Accordingly, Dr. Dim hates football.

"Even I know that the average NFL game has only 12 minutes of actual action. Football players are supposed to be agile, mobile and hostile, right? Tell me, Charley, why would you want to play against someone who wants to hurt you? And vice versa? Nobody's crazier than me, but you've got to be really crazy to play football. And how crazy do you have to be to watch it? Unless, of course, you've got a bet riding on the outcome."

As for baseball: "It's fun if you're pitching and maybe playing shortstop. I'd rather take batting practice against a machine than watch a World Series game. Baseball is historic, right? Baseball and hot dogs. Baseball and peanuts. The trouble is, you can't really understand what's going on by watching one ballgame. You have to watch a whole season. Unless, of course, you've got a bet riding on the outcome."

And hockey? "Guys playing with suspenders? Forget about it. Plus, nobody in their right mind ever bets on hockey."

Tennis anyone? "Not anybody that I want to know."

Golf? "Any activity in which an 80-year-old man could theoretically beat a 20-year-old is not a sport. Golf is a game. Only rich people bet on it."

Dr. Dim is still upset over reading a survey that claims basketball ranks third among our TV preferences.

"Even worse," he laments, "basketball's ranking is seriously threatened by ice hockey, soccer, tennis, golf, boxing, bowling, auto racing, swimming, gymnastics and figure skating. Could you believe it?"

He shakes his head with disgust.

"What can you say to people who'd rather watch all these other stupid games? Bah! Would it be even worth the effort? I'm telling you, Charley, nobody cares but the Hoopers. Nobody knows but the Hoopers. Plus there's dozens of games to bet every night."