The Nuggets took a long shot at free agent Dwyane Wade. They missed. You can’t win if you don’t play, and with an aggressive pursuit of the 34-year-old guard, Denver showed it’s serious about getting back in the game.

“D-Wade was worth the chase,” said Nuggets president Josh Kroenke, who received the bad news Wednesday evening via a text from Wade, who informed Denver that he was indeed leaving the Miami Heat after 13 seasons, but was heading back to his hometown of Chicago to play with the Bulls.

Wade acted genuinely interested during the Nuggets’ 2 ½-hour sales pitch in New York, then left the meeting and used Denver for leverage, forcing the Bulls to find ways to sweeten the deal to his liking.

So how exactly does an NBA superstar tell a team that its $50 million offer wasn’t good enough?

“We made it as difficult as decision as we could, and he struggled with it,” Kroenke said. “My understanding is (Wade) felt the pull of where he grew up.”

There are no participation ribbons in free agency, though. You either score or get left holding a bag of money. If Denver really wants to get serious about luring stars to a flyover city, then the next free agent the Nuggets need to sign is Chauncey Billups, the Colorado prep hero who grew up to be an NBA champ with the Detroit Pistons.

For years, Billups has made it well known he wants to build a contender as a front-office executive. The question is: Where in Denver’s front office can Billups fit between Kroenke and general manager Tim Connelly? The answer: As special assistant to the president, with Billups assigned to sell free agents that Denver can indeed be a great place for an NBA star to thrive.

The Nuggets, as Kroenke has vowed to me, intend to spend big and score big in free agency during 2017, when Denver could have $60 million in salary cap space and the list of players on the open market could include Russell Westbrook, Blake Griffin, Gordon Hayward and Paul Millsap, to name just a few.

The Nuggets hoped to speed up by the process by 12 months and tried to seize on a rare opportunity with Wade, when his displeasure with a lowball contract offer from Miami pointed all signs to an ugly divorce with the Heat. While the contingent of Kroenke, Connelly and coach Michael Malone left a Wednesday morning, face-to-face meeting with Wade feeling confident enough to believe they had a 50-50 chance of signing him, there was also concern within the organization that after he declined to reach an agreement over the Fourth of July weekend, when Denver put together the parameters of its big offer, the likelihood of a deal was slipping away.

“We’re bummed we didn’t get him, but I’m fired up about us headed into the future,” Kroenke said.

Wade’s roots are in the Midwest. His heart was in South Florida. With no obvious connections to the Rocky Mountains, my feeling was always that the Nuggets were attempting to pull off the biggest upset in team history since Dikembe Mutombo rolled on the court with joy after Denver beat top-seeded Seattle in the 1994 playoffs.

Before the Nuggets, whose aggregate record during the past three seasons is 99-147, can have any hope of regaining respect throughout the league, they must cease to be invisible as an NBA city. Carmelo Anthony damaged the team’s reputation by forcing a trade five years ago, and although Denver won 57 games during the 2012-13 regular season, former coach George Karl’s notoriety for clashes with star players from Ray Allen to Anthony to Andre Iguodala turned off free agents on the prospect of playing for the Nuggets.

After more than 30,000 minutes of wear and tear on his body, the return on investment Wade could have offered an as a player presented a considerable makes gamble for Denver. If Heat president Pat Riley, one of the sharpest minds in the sport, was reluctant to pay a star, pardon me for wondering if that’s the same kiss of death as Bill Belichick cutting ties with a longtime contributor to the New England Patriots. Although Wade averaged 19 points per game for Miami last season, his true shooting percentage — which takes into account efficiency on two-point shots, 3-point shots and free throws — has declined in each of the past two seasons, according to stats compiled by Basketball-Reference.com

Denver has been desperate for a star to buy in ever since Anthony asked out.

By aggressively pursuing Wade, the Nuggets are back in the game. What they need now is somebody to show them how to win. Give Billups a call.