![]() Rauf’s “distractions” were partially (and incorrectly) blamed for the dumpster fire that Bernie Bickerstaff led them to be. ![]() He led the team in points-per-game during a Nuggets renaissance that included Dikembe Mutombo, LaPhonso Ellis, and coach Dan Issel. 956 mark that is the third-best in league history. In his last three seasons in Denver, Abdul-Rauf led the league twice in free throw percentage, including a. By season’s end, he would find himself traded away to the Sacramento Kings, and his career would never be the same. Though he’d been a huge part of the Nuggets making it to the playoffs the two seasons prior, he was suddenly a worrisome part of the Denver puzzle by becoming an unfortunate pariah with a data-driven opinion he chose to stand by. Rauf was immediately booed and dismissed by an unfortunate number in his home crowd – let alone road games – every time he touched the ball. In that era, there was little sympathy for Mahmoud’s opinion in the afterglow of the 80’s. The hatred and vitriol that hit Kaepernick was sizable, but nothing compared to the near-absolute verdict delivered to Abdul-Rauf a quarter century ago. When Rauf decided to not stand for the National Anthem based upon his beliefs, he was not greeted by even the strident-but-somewhat-evenly-sided chat that surrounded Colin Kaepernick’s similar call 20 years later. ![]() Those labels did not dissuade him from continuing to stand for what he believes, by not standing, actually. ![]() When the person formerly known as Chris Jackson decided to change his name to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, he was labelled by some of society as a troublemaker and rabble-rouser.
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