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Denver Nuggets being sued by their mascot in NBA stunner
By Erich Richter
Published Aug. 14, 2025, 11:44 a.m. ET

Rocky the Mountain Lion roared back at the Denver Nuggets.

The man behind the suit, Drake Solomon, is seeking unspecified damages from Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Nuggets, for an alleged violation of disability protection laws.

The Colorado Sun reported this week that Solomon was diagnosed with a bone tissue condition, avascular necrosis, during the 2022-23 season, and was eventually forced to have multiple surgeries, including a hip replacement procedure during the following season.

The Denver Nuggets mascot, Rocky, crouches on the court.
3
Nuggets mascot, Rocky the Mountain Lion, is suing the Nuggets after the job ran it’s family for more than 30 years.
Getty Images
When Solomon told his supervisors about the impending hip replacement, he claims the team decided to hold tryouts for the mascot gig “due to his record of impairment and their lack of confidence in his health.”

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Solomon said he recovered quickly from his hip replacement and returned to work during the 2023-24 season.

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The lawsuit claims his return to work included a “hostile work environment,” and the team decided to hold tryouts for the new Rocky because he “burned them last time.”

Solomon was fired in August 2024, shortly after tryouts for a new Rocky, which he says violated his rights under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.

Solomon began his career with the team in 2012 as a “trampoline dunk artist.”

His father was the original Rocky for over 30 years and retired in 2021 when Solomon took over the gig in a private, closed-door tryout.

“It was not easy to go ahead with this because I love the Nuggets,” Solomon said. “They’ve been my whole life and my family. For things to end the way they did, it was pretty heartbreaking.”

The Nuggets won the NBA Finals in 2023, which wound up being one of Solomon’s last seasons as the team’s mascot.