The tears of joy. The celebrations among a loud and proud crowd. Hugs among teammates, coaches, and executives.
That was the scene at Ball Arena at the end of the 2023 NBA Finals.
After 47 long years ever since arriving to the NBA, the Denver Nuggets have finally reached the league's summit.
It was a grueling and ugly game, but sometimes, teams have to win ugly to achieve the biggest task in basketball.
That's what the Nuggets did, as they outlasted the Miami Heat, 94-89, to win the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
While Nikola Jokić did not win NBA MVP this season, he did win the Bill Russell Trophy, having been named Finals MVP, an award that has more meaning to him than the ones he won the last two seasons.
Behind his double-double of 28 points and 16 rebounds, he finished the postseason as the first player in history to lead the league in points (600), rebounds (269), and assists (190) in a single playoff year.
He is now the lowest-drafted player to win Finals MVP, having been drafted 41st overall in 2014, surpassing Dennis Johnson, who was drafted 29th overall in 1979, and just the third second round pick to win Finals MVP, joining Johnson and Willis Reed.
Along with that, he also joins Giannis Antetokounmpo, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only players born overseas to win Finals MVP.
Nothing came easy in this game. They initially had trouble shaking off the gritty Heat in the first half.
They missed 20 of their first 22 three-pointers and were 5 of 28 from deep overall. They missed seven of their first 13 free throws. They overcame both to take a seven-point lead, only for Jimmy Butler to score eight straight points, three of them on a highly controversial Aaron Gordon foul from behind the arc in which it appeared Butler inadvertently kicked Gordon while the Denver power forward did not even make contact with Butler, for a one-point Heat lead with 2:45 left.
Two more free throws with 1:58 left, and Butler restored Miami's one-point lead. Bruce Brown, however, got an offensive rebound and a tip-in to get the Nuggets the edge in the game, and they didn't look back.
Butler tried to fight back with a highly-contested three, which rimmed out. Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope sealed the deal with two free throws each.
During a timeout, DeAndre Jordan, who played 3:01 of Game 5, told Jamal Murray, "Go win this game. Twelve minutes, bro, and you in history."
Everyone heeded his call.
From Jokić's basket in the paint with 2:24 left, to Brown's putback with 91 seconds remaining, to KCP's steal off a Butler pass with 27.1 left, they continued making big play after big play in a very hard-fought win in front of a raucous Ball Arena.
Plus, Michael Porter Jr., who scored 18 points combined in the last three games and shot 3 of 22 from beyond the arc in the Finals, he broke through for 16 points and 13 rebounds, and it could not have come at a much better time.
The Nuggets are more than just Jokić and Murray. They showed that with MPJ's performance, along with a vicious Gordon block on Kyle Lowry's jump shot with 6:58 left, which shows the Nuggets would do whatever it takes to deny Miami coming back from down 3-1.
And this night capped off a long stretch of amazing patience by the Nuggets: Building around Jokić and Murray, waiting for Murray and MPJ to recover from a torn ACL and back surgery, respectively, and not making any significant personnel changes.
Through nearly five decades, the Nuggets have been at times entertaining, even being the first 8-seeded team to win a playoff series when they, led at that time by Dikembe Mutombo, upset the highly favored Seattle SuperSonics. But never really good enough to break through against the biggest stars.
Before this season, only two teams founded before 1980 never made it to the NBA Finals—the Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers. The Nuggets took their name off that list this season, and they made it count, joining the San Antonio Spurs as the second original ABA team to win it all in the NBA.
It was the ascendance of the Joker into a do-everything center that rose the Nuggets to prominence.
And it all started back to when "Jokmas" came.
At that time in the 2017 season, when Christmas 2016 was approaching, the Nuggets started Jokić at the 4 with Jusuf Nurkić at the 5 in a lineup that wasn't working. After the Nuggets lost by 20 points to the Dallas Mavericks to fall to 9-16, head coach Mike Malone made a decision that changed the course of the entire franchise.
Malone switched Jokić over at the 5, and even though Jokić got five fouls on that December 15th, 2016 match against the Portland Trail Blazers, he did record 13 points, 5 boards and 4 assists in 19 minutes during a 12-point victory.
When he was drafted 41st overall, nobody expected him to eventually become the best player in the league.
But he worked for it, showed the vision to pass to the open teammate, and displayed the team-first mentality.
And in the nine years that followed after the Draft, he is now a world-class center who can pass like a point guard and can score from anywhere on the court, whether it be one-legged Dirk-esque shots or muscling his way to the inside to dominate the paint.
And while everyone might not like Stan Kroenke, he has now won four championships in major professional sports leagues in the last two years. His Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in Super Bowl LVI, his Colorado Avalanche knocked off the Tampa Bay Lightning in last year's Stanley Cup Final, and his Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League defeated the Buffalo Bandits, two games to one, in last year's NLL Final.
Yes, there are going to be people bashing him for moving the Rams out of St. Louis into Los Angeles along with stadium issues with that. But he knows what it takes to win, and is willing to spend the money to build a championship contending team.
As for the Heat, even though they lost the Finals, there's no shame in losing in the biggest stage as an 8th seed. It was still an outstanding job by Pat Riley, Erik Spoelstra, Butler and everyone else to join the 1999 New York Knicks as the only 8th-seeded teams to make the Finals.
Butler, who finished the night with 21 points on 5 of 18, imposed his will throughout the postseason runs with the Heat while carrying them at various points.
There was disappointment in the locker room, but there was also a sense of pride because of what they accomplished to get here after almost losing to the Chicago Bulls in the second-chance game in the play-in tournament.
Spoelstra continues to speak highly of this team, and has the same love for the players as the players have that love for him and his style. It all resonated through the locker room, from Butler and Bam Adebayo, to the many undrafted players on the team, to 20-year veteran Udonis Haslem.
Then again, Pat Riley has two definitions for what Heat Culture is about.
The first, from the year 2000, was "a shared philosophy with the goal of being great." The second, from three years ago, was "our shared goals, shared vision, shared thoughts."
While the times, rosters, and personnel change, Heat Culture never changes. It has been their trademark with him at the helm, and it's because of this that has led them to establishing themselves as the class of the Eastern Conference.
To everyone who tuned into my broadcast on Twitter Spaces, I would like to say thank you so much, and you guys mean a lot to me.
And so, that brings us to an end in the 2022-23 NBA season. I'll do more play-by-play of NBA games starting next season on the platform.
Thank you for tuning in to another great season of the NBA.
Scoring by Quarter
1st Quarter: Nuggets 22, Heat 24—Heat lead 24-22
2nd Quarter: Nuggets 22, Heat 27—Heat lead 51-44
3rd Quarter: Nuggets 26, Heat 20—Heat lead 71-70
4th Quarter: Nuggets 24, Heat 18—Nuggets win 94-89
Box Score
Denver Nuggets
Nikola Jokić: 28 points (12/16 FG; 1/3 3PT; 3/5 FT), 16 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block, 4 turnovers, 3 fouls, 42:18
Michael Porter Jr.: 16 points (7/17 FG; 1/6 3PT; 1/2 FT), 13 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 turnover, 33:36
Jamal Murray: 14 points (6/15 FG; 2/7 3PT; 0/0 FT), 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 steal, 6 turnovers, 2 fouls, 41:15
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope: 11 points (4/10 FG; 1/5 3PT; 2/2 FT), 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks, 1 turnover, 1 foul, 34:00
Bruce Brown: 10 points (4/14 FG; 0/5 3PT; 2/4 FT), 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 1 turnover, 1 foul, 28:09
Christian Braun: 7 points (2/4 FG; 0/0 3PT; 3/6 FT), 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 24:17
Jeff Green: 4 points (2/2 FG; 0/0 3PT; 0/0 FT), 1 assist, 2 fouls, 4:44
Aaron Gordon: 4 points (1/6 FG; 0/2 3PT; 2/4 FT), 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 1 block, 1 turnover, 4 fouls, 28:40
DeAndre Jordan: 0 points (0/0 FG; 0/0 3PT; 0/0 FT), 1 block, 0 fouls, 3:01
Miami Heat
Jimmy Butler: 21 points (5/18 FG; 2/5 3PT; 9/11 FT), 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 41:19
Bam Adebayo: 20 points (9/20 FG; 0/0 3PT; 2/2 FT), 12 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 44:08
Max Strus: 12 points (5/12 FG; 1/6 3PT; 1/1 FT), 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 1 turnover, 3 fouls, 31:36
Kyle Lowry: 12 points (4/13 FG; 4/9 3PT; 0/0 FT), 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 1 turnover, 5 fouls, 34:20
Caleb Martin: 10 points (4/9 FG; 0/4 3PT; 2/2 FT), 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 2 turnovers, 4 fouls, 32:01
Gabe Vincent: 6 points (3/13 FG; 0/4 3PT; 0/0 FT), 3 assists, 1 steal, 2 fouls, 32:01
Duncan Robinson: 5 points (2/6 FG; 1/3 3PT; 0/0 FT), 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, 2 turnovers, 1 foul, 16:49
Kevin Love: 3 points (1/4 FG; 1/4 3PT; 0/0 FT), 2 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 blocks, 1 foul, 14:10
Haywood Highsmith: 0 points (0/0 FG; 0/0 3PT; 0/0 FT), 1 rebound, 1 foul, 2:54
Cody Zeller: 0 points (0/1 FG; 0/0 3PT; 0/0 FT), 1 rebound, 0 fouls, 1:01
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