Denver’s & Miami’s Shared Treasured Connections with UTEP

After a long season of NBA basketball, we know have the teams representing the West & East; The Denver Nuggets & The Miami Heat. Denver will be fighting to get their 1st championship while Miami is fighting for their 4th. Regardless on who wins, both teams have history with UTEP as you'll see.

The Denver Nuggets have received players from UTEP basketball in the past

One of the first players to join the NBA from UTEP was Julyan Stone. From 2007 to 2011 played for the UTEP Miner wearing the #5 jersey. He would play a total of 138 games & have a final score of over 800 points overall.

After the 2011 season, Julyan would sign to join the Denver Nugget for the next 2 years as #10. You can see his stats for the Nuggets, the Raptors & the Hornets here.

Another Denver Nugget player worth noting is Earl Boykins; who played for the Denver Nuggets between 2003-2006. He was #11.

He would play in the NBA a total of 12 years.  Currently Earl is UTEP's Assistant Coach & has been since 2021. Under his coaching, UTEP would have its first 20 win season in 2021 since 2015 & a spot in The Basketball Classic (the first time since 2015)

UTEP's history with Miami heat

The history with Miami has gone back quite some time; George Banks who played for UTEP from 1993-1995 would be drafted to the Miami Heat in 1995. Another player was Arnett Moultrie; who played for UTEP between 2008-2010 as #1. He would be drafted to the Miami Heat but then quickly drafted to join the Philadelphia 76ers.

And of course there's the story of Jimmy Butler & his special family ties with UTEP which you can read all about here.

But there's one other player that both the Denver Nuggets, Miami Heat & UTEP all treasure

And it's none other than UTEP's Mr. Two Step himself...Tim Hardaway

Not only has the NBA Hall of Famer played for the Denver Nuggets in 2002 (they were even nice enough to call his Two Step "SWEEET" on Facebook") but he's played for the Miami Heat too, from 1996-2001.

No matter who wins this year's NBA championship, UTEP has had some treasured memories with both teams over the decades that we'll remember for a long time.

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