So many feels. As Reggie Jackson held up that No. 7 jersey, déjà reached over and kissed vu like Valentine’s Day never left.

“You got a favorite Nugget growing up?”

Jackson smiled at that one.

“Being a Colorado kid,” the former Palmer High star and Colorado Springs native said Wednesday night at Ball Arena before his new teammates beat Dallas, “of course it was Chauncey (Billups).”

Of course. And how’s this for beautiful symmetry? Billups, Colorado’s Mr. Basketball from 1993-95, was 32 when he was traded from Detroit back to Denver in November 2008. Jackson, 32, Colorado’s 2008 Mr. Basketball, officially signed with the Nuggets this past Tuesday.

No. 7 now, repping No. 7 then.

You getting goose bumps, too?

“It is so much fun to have him closer,” former Palmer coach Jim Grantz, Jackson’s old mentor, told me by phone Wednesday.

“One of the best things about Reggie is, no matter where he’s been (in the NBA), he’s always been in contact with us. (He always) asks about my kids, asks about my wife, he’s just been such a great dude through all this. He hasn’t changed. He isn’t a ‘big-time’ guy. He’s the same hard-working guy, and super-talented, for sure, a really good all-around guy. So it’s super fun to see and for him to be on a team like (the Nuggets), to have the core that they have already — to (join) a team that exciting, to be on one of the best teams in the NBA, is super fun.”

Snowy roads kept Grantz from driving north Wednesday to catch up with one of his favorite former pupils in the flesh. There’s time. The second-best part of Jackson coming home is that the ghosts of Terrors past — Big Gov famously carried Palmer to the 5A Final Four in the winter of ’08 — have more windows to relive old gags and old glories.

The best part? How sweetly No. 7, savvy to the last, completes the Nuggets’ postseason puzzle.

He’s not here to start, the way Billups was in ’08-09. But the basic idea of the two homecomings is roughly the same: Adding a steady, trustworthy voice in the backcourt, a veteran hand who’ll keep the ship level — career NBA playoffs offensive rating:114.4, or 114.4 points per 100 minutes played — whenever the seas get choppy. Someone who’s bigger than the moment, as opposed to the other way around.

“When I think about Reggie, what gives me confidence is, this guy has been there and done that,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said Wednesday. “(The) 2021 Western Conference finals, where he was phenomenal — just go back and look at the game logs and the productivity and the efficiency. So you’re getting a veteran who understands he’s coming to a really good team. (There’s) role acceptance, role definition.”

Even as they were dropping daggers on his team at the Orlando bubble three years ago, Jackson tried to hate on the Nuggets. He couldn’t.

“(I remember) Jamal (Murray) talking about ‘Game 7,’ right in front of our bench,” recalled the Springs native, who was on the Clippers squad that blew a 3-1 series lead to the Nuggets in the conference semis.

“And the two things, I think, I took away from that series (were), Jamal was real, and I think that was Nikola (Jokic’s) coming-out party, probably, to the league and for myself.

“I love being a student of the game. I remember going home after every game (in the 2020 series) talking to my brother and (saying), like, ‘They’re beating us somehow, and I can’t figure it out.’ And it was like he was right in front of me, but I couldn’t see him. And then after the series, it was evident by about Game 5 to me, I was like, ‘Oh snap, that (Murray) kid is really, really good. And he’s just taking off.’”

Speaking of taking off, these Nuggets remind Jackson of another set of old teammates — the Palmer team that almost won it all. Same chemistry. Same chips on their shoulders. And same ‘chip — as in, a championship — in the backs of everybody’s minds. Every day.

“It’s been fun to kind of feel that similar energy,” Jackson explained, “and to see the way this group has been going, I was just in there talking to (Aaron Gordon) earlier about (how) we played (the Nuggets) in preseason and to see their maturation — I thought it was gonna be a good team, but you can see their confidence, they didn’t want to be a ‘good’ team, they don’t want to be a ‘good’ team. And they’ve set out to do big things, and I think their confidence and their work ethic and their belief is really what’s allowed them to be in the position they are today.

“So like I said, I just want to be able to help.”

There’s a new No. 7 in town.

With all the old, clutch 7 vibes.

“Hopefully,” Jackson said, smiling again, “(I’ll) be a lucky 7.”