The Denver Nuggets Were in a Portland Hotel as It Was Surrounded by a Furious Crowd Seeking Andy Ngo

The Denver Nuggets basketball team was staying in The Nines hotel in downtown Portland on Friday night when leftist activists surrounded the building in pursuit of a man they believed to be conservative author Andy Ngo, WW has learned.

Riot police arrived at the hotel shortly before midnight on May 28 and formed a perimeter at the intersection of Southwest Morrison Street and 6th Avenue for the next 30 minutes.

Sources familiar with the Nuggets’ travel arrangements say the NBA team stayed at The Nines during its two-game road trip to Portland for the playoff series with the Trail Blazers. The Nuggets arrived in Portland on May 26 and left May 29.

That means the team was inside the hotel when the crowd pursued the man they believed to be Ngo to the concierge desk of the hotel, then pulled on the doors and confronted Nines staff in a chaotic scene. Protesters had previously tackled and punched the man, who fled to the hotel for safety.

Related: Portland protesters chase, tackle and punch someone they believe to be Andy Ngo until he hides in The Nines hotel.

The man the crowd sought rode up an elevator into the hotel as people banged on the windows outside. At 11:55 pm, police secured the nearby intersection in order to make an arrest.

After police left the scene at 12:30 am, they used a sound truck to broadcast a warning to the crowd: “Anyone who is not a guest of The Nines may not enter the hotel. Do not enter or damage The Nines hotel property.…Move away from The Nines hotel now.”

Ngo, among the nation’s most prominent critics of Portland’s anti-fascist movement and a prolific user of Twitter—where he regularly publishes the mug shots and personal information of leftist protesters—has been silent in the 36 hours since the incident. He has not confirmed that he was the man protesters assaulted—even to the Canadian news website he edits, The Post Millennial.

Staff at The Nines declined to confirm the Nuggets’ stay, citing security protocols. The team’s spokesperson did not respond to an inquiry from WW.

Local disruptions are a reality of NBA travel. The Trail Blazers, for example, had to shelter in a parking garage in Atlanta this year when a tornado warning evacuated their hotel. But civil unrest outside the Nuggets’ accommodations the night before a 1 pm tipoff is a novel development.

The Blazers defeated the Nuggets handily in Saturday’s game, 115-95.

Suzette Smith contributed reporting to this story.