Every Laker fan is excited about the team’s newest draft pick Dalton Knecht. Drafted 17th overall out of Tennessee, no Laker fan was expecting they’d have the chance to draft him. In one of Knecht’s first interviews as a Laker, he made a very surprising statement about the Denver Nuggets that may make some Lakers fans unhappy.

During an interview with SLAM Online, Dalton Knecht was asked who the greatest NBA team of all time was, and he gave a very surprising answer.

“Denver Nuggets.”

Knecht didn’t explain why he believed the Denver Nuggets were the greatest team of all time, but it’s honestly very puzzling. The Nuggets have only won one championship in their organizational lifetime, while the Lakers have won 17.

For what it’s worth, Dalton Knecht went to high school in Colorado and went to college in Northern Colorado for two years. So his affinity for the Denver Nuggets could come purely from where he grew up.

At Tennessee, Knecht was actually a very proficient scorer. He averaged 21.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.8 assists on 46/40/77 shooting. He’s a very developed college player, spending three years as an NCAA Division 1 athlete, and he’s already 23 years old. One could definitely argue that Knecht will be one of the steals of the NBA draft to watch out for.

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After switching its elementary reading curriculum to one aligned with the science of reading, Denver Public Schools is celebrating an increase in the percentage of kindergarten through third grade students who ended the school year reading on grade level.

But the test scores are still below pre-pandemic levels — a vexing outcome the district is acknowledging by adopting a new intervention program to help the most struggling learners. Studies show that students who don’t read proficiently by third grade are less likely to graduate.

The lower test scores show the long tail of pandemic learning loss. They indicate that the pandemic not only affected children who were in school when the virus hit in early 2020, but also those who were too young to be enrolled. This past year’s third graders were preschool age when COVID shuttered school buildings across the country. This past year’s kindergarteners were babies.

In a press release, DPS reported that 61% of kindergarten through third graders this past spring were reading at grade level or above. That’s up from 58% in the spring of 2023.

Read more at chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat Colorado is a nonprofit news organization covering education issues. For more, visit chalkbeat.org/co.

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