Denver Nuggets, first NBA championship in franchise history, 47 years.
Nikola Jokic, the undisputed Finals MVP.
Jokic holds the championship trophy.
The Miami Heat played a perfect loser - a 1-4 loss, but the fifth game played the atmosphere of a seventh game, fighting to the last moment of the game.
The Heat didn't surrender, didn't give the Nuggets garbage time, didn't let Denver celebrate early. Denver Nuggets this championship is a serious fight against the heat, just to get it, the real thing.
The Heat's opening blitz was misfired, and the Nuggets held on.
Lowry with speed, Adebayo dominated the first quarter, the Nuggets held on.
Lowry's sexy play in the second quarter, the Nuggets held on.
At the end of the fourth quarter, Jimmy Butler scored 13 straight points out of thin air, threatening to reverse the game - the Nuggets, on Bruce Brown's rebound, on Pope's steal, won.
The Nuggets passed the test of the heat, practiced the real gold, and won the championship. Murray broke down in tears after the match.
After the game, Murray first bent over to cover his eyes, unable to stop the tears, you can imagine his mood: three years ago, the Nuggets to the Western Conference finals, Murray world War I fame, and then is injured to stop for a year and a half.
Three years later, the Nuggets' Patton, Harris, Grant, Millsap, Morris, Craig, Plumlee - all gone. Only Jokic and Porter are still there, and things have changed a lot, and today, the championship.
Murray is only 26, Porter is not yet 25 - and after two seasons of injury, they finally got it all.
And that includes everyone else: Gordon, who played just five playoff games in six and a half years with the Orlando Magic, has been the leading defender on a champions-winning team this season against James, Butler, Durant and Booker.
Bruce Brown, the 42nd overall pick in the draft, and his big brother Pope of the Detroit Pistons became the championship guard.
After 11 teams, Jeff Green finally won a championship ahead of his brothers James Harden and Russell Westbrook.
Jordan won the championship before Paul and Griffin. It's amazing. Jordan also won a championship.
Consider Nikola Jokic, the 2023 Finals MVP.
This season's playoff total of 600 points, the league first; Total rebounding 269, first in the league; Total assists 190, first in the league.
First player in history to win all three playoff games. The Finals were the series in which he averaged the fewest assists per game in the postseason - 7.2 assists per game. Coach Spo means: Don't let him set up the offense. So Jokic got an average of 31 points per game, today's stranglehold, 16 shots 28 points. A worthy Finals MVP.
In the 2003 NBA draft, James became the first pick, Milicic ranked second and Anthony explored the flower. Milicic brought up Nemanja Jokic, his good friend from Serbia, and gave him the chance to play at the University of Detroit. Nemanja didn't play in the NBA, but he hung out with Milicic and later said, "That's how I got to see the life of an NBA player." Nemanja later returned to his hometown of Sombor, Serbia, and told his fat brother, Nikola Jokic, who drank a gallon of Coke a day and liked basketball, horse racing, water polo, and soccer, that he should focus on basketball, "You should try to play in the NBA in the future!"
Naughty Jokic pours champagne on Pope's head.
Jokic was drafted 41st overall in 2014 and began playing in the NBA in 2015.
In 2019, Nuggets assistant coach Michael Eisenberg advised Jokic, "You can aim for MVP."
He lost 10 pounds and "feels good"; Lost 20 pounds. "Can I dunk?" Lost 30 pounds, "I can speed up!" And we know the rest. Twenty years after Milicic was selected No. 2 in the 2003 draft, Nikola Jokic, the brother of his good friend Nemanja Jokic, wore the No. 15 Nuggets jersey of Anthony in 2003, and eliminated James, the No. 1 pick in 2003, on the day Melo retired, and the Nuggets made it to the finals for the first time in history.
