![]() ![]() “Nikola, he grew into who he is now,” Jeff Green said. Where Does a Title Put Nikola Jokic in NBA History? The Denver Nuggets Have Reached the NBA’s Summit Six Degrees of Jeff Green “For us,” head coach Michael Malone said, “there’s never been a rushed mentality.” There are very explicable basketball reasons the Denver Nuggets are now champions most of them begin with the fact that Jokic is the best basketball player in the world. Nothing in the NBA is really built to last anymore-except, apparently, the Nuggets. There’s always a free agent to chase or lose, a coach to hire or blame, a trend in the league to follow or counter. ![]() Yet when it comes to building a championship team, vanishingly few organizations have shown any real capacity to wait out the work. Patience is understood to be part of the process. No one just becomes a champion they shape themselves into one over a basketball lifetime. “Two-a-days and three-a-days and four-a-days for years and years and years, just so you can make maybe one big shot,” Denver’s Aaron Gordon said. ![]() But behind those dramatic developments, propping them up, is the monotonous work required to make magic happen. There is magic in any run to the NBA Finals-in the way a miracle shot falls, a role player transcends their limitations, or a star comes into their own. How they built it is now the biggest story in the league. They built something here that no one can ever take away. The members of the Nuggets may be from Kitchener or Sombor or Queens or San Jose, but they’ll always be from Denver, too. It’s what it means to have a place in the world. “I mean, look at this.” This is what it feels like to finally achieve what you’ve spent decades striving for. ![]() We proved a lot of doubters wrong, and …” He trailed off, smiling and shaking his head, as the crowd roared louder and louder. Everybody on my team in here, everybody on the floor believed in me-believed in me to get back to myself. “Blood, sweat, and tears to get back to this point. “It’s just an amazing feeling,” Murray said. Where will Chris Paul land? Will Portland finally give in and trade Dame Lillard? We’re keeping a close watch on all of the biggest free agents, trade targets, retirement bluffers, and more in our new offseason tracker. But even years of envisioning what it would be like to stand on that stage with the Larry O’Brien Trophy in his arms couldn’t prepare him for it. To put him in a time and a place so vivid he can see the red and gold trim of his uniform. He’ll sometimes ask the Nuggets’ equipment manager in advance what jersey the team will be wearing, just to create a more accurate picture in his mind. Over the years, Murray has explained that his incredible poise on the court comes from intense preparation-not only by drilling for every possible shot he could take in a game, but also through visualizing outcomes in his mental practice. ESPN’s Lisa Salters had a question for him about his grueling road back from an ACL tear, but the moment completely overwhelmed it the Ball Arena crowd erupted at the sight of their franchise point guard before Salters could even finish her thought, and Murray looked up in recognition, trying and failing to hold back tears through a wide, toothy grin. It was Jamal Murray’s turn on the presentation stage. With the job finally done and the first of his media obligations reluctantly attended to, Nikola Jokic-his daughter in one arm and the NBA Finals MVP trophy in the other-ran one last pick-and-roll, clearing space for his teammate of seven years. ![]()
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