Grading the Week: Colorado’s greatest sports moment of 2022? Jared Bednar pounding a beverage at Colfax and Broadway

Go ahead and pack up the rest of 2022.

There’s nothing left that can match Thursday morning in downtown Denver when our delightful city devolved into a large-scale frat party fueled almost entirely by Stanley Cup euphoria.

Heavy emphasis on “almost.”

Jared Bednar — A+

The Grading the Week staff will not soon forget the greatest moment in the Colorado Sports Year of  2022.

It came just as the Avalanche victory parade hit a fevered pitch a Cale Makar slapshot away from the Colorado Statehouse, with the distinct scent of blunts and beer filling the air.

That was when the truck carrying Avs coach Jared Bednar, team owner Stan Kroenke and general manager Joe Sakic came to a halt at the intersection of Colfax and Broadway.

With the revelers basking in the glow of Bednar’s championship aura, an adoring fan threw the coach what we can only assume was a lukewarm beverage. As if on cue, the Saskatchewan native popped the can open, pounded it with vigor, then tossed what was left back into the audience to a rousing set of cheers.

While we didn’t take a poll of those standing along the parade route at that moment, we’re almost certain 99.9% of those in the vicinity would’ve elected Bednar mayor of the city on the spot.

And we would’ve been one of them.

Calvin Booth — C

If we have but one dream, it’s that someday we will get to see Nuggets head coach Michael Malone reenact those very same theatrics at Colfax and Broadway.

Whether Calvin Booth, the Nuggets’ new top decision-maker, brought that any closer to reality over the past week is open to interpretation.

The Grading the Week staff stand firmly behind Booth’s decision to send guards Monte Morris and Will Barton to Washington in exchange for defensive ace Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Ish Smith. We’re also intrigued by the signing of versatile wing Bruce Brown. But color us more than a little skeptical about bringing in journeyman center DeAndre Jordan — someone who’s very clearly several years removed from his prime.

While Jordan will only cost the Nuggets a one-year veteran’s minimum salary, we can’t help but wonder why Booth felt compelled to make him that offer minutes after free agency began. Couldn’t he have waited to see if a better option presented itself? It’s not as if teams were beating down Jordan’s door to add him to their roster.

Alas, the Nuggets’ recent tradition of struggling to find a suitable backup for two-time MVP Nikola Jokic will live on one more year.

The good news: After getting the Joker to agree to a five-year supermax extension, Booth’s got five more offseasons to finally get it right.

CU athletics — D

There are many fathers of the disaster that is USC and UCLA’s dual departures from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten.

Former Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott’s failed media strategy sits near the very top of that list. So, too, does the Trojans and Bruins’ own inability to consistently live up to their status as Pac12 bluebloods.

But there is a certain amount of blame that also must be laid at the feet of the 10 other universities that currently constitute the Pac-12 — including the CU Buffs.