Former Nuggets Mascot Rocky Files Disability Discrimination Suit Against Team
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Denver, CO — Drake Solomon, who performed as Rocky the Mountain Lion, has filed a lawsuit accusing Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, owner of the Denver Nuggets, of violating disability protection laws.
The complaint, lodged under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, states that Solomon was diagnosed with avascular necrosis during the 2022-23 NBA season and later underwent multiple surgeries, including a hip replacement. After he informed supervisors about the procedure, the organization initiated mascot tryouts, citing concerns about his health, according to the suit.
Solomon says he quickly recovered and returned for the 2023-24 season but encountered what he describes as a hostile work environment. He alleges the team ran another round of tryouts “because he burned them last time,” and he was dismissed in August 2024, shortly after those auditions.
Solomon joined the Nuggets in 2012 as a trampoline dunk performer. He succeeded his father—who had portrayed Rocky for more than three decades—in 2021 after a private tryout. One of his final seasons in costume coincided with the Nuggets’ 2023 NBA championship.
“It was not easy to go ahead with this because I love the Nuggets,” Solomon said in a statement included in the filing. “They’ve been my whole life and my family. For things to end the way they did, it was pretty heartbreaking.”
Source: Hoops Wire
