Claim: Allen Iverson was in a sports league.

The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver , Colorado . The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association -LRB- NBA -RRB- as a member club of the league 's Western Conference Northwest Division . The team was founded as the Denver Larks in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association -LRB- ABA -RRB- , but changed its name to Rockets before the first season . It changed its name again to the Nuggets in 1974 . After the name change , the Nuggets played for the final ABA Championship title in 1976 , losing to the New York Nets .   The team has had some periods of success , qualifying for the ABA Playoffs for all seasons from 1967 to the 1976 ABA playoffs where it lost in the finals . The team joined the NBA in 1976 after the ABA -- NBA merger and qualified for the NBA playoffs in nine consecutive seasons in the 1980s and ten consecutive seasons from 2004 to 2013 . However , it has not made an appearance in a championship round since its last year in the ABA . The Nuggets play their home games at Pepsi Center , which they share with the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League -LRB- NHL -RRB- and the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League -LRB- NLL -RRB- .