DENVER (AP) – Stan Kroenke’s sports empire has produced an NFL, NHL and now NBA champion in three consecutive seasons.
His newest title got here Monday night time when the Denver Nuggets received their first championship 47 years after becoming a member of the NBA. His Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 within the Super Bowl following the 2021 season, and his Colorado Avalanche hoisted the Stanley Cup final summer season after dispatching Tampa Bay in six video games.
Through the champagne spray and cigar smoke choking the Nuggets’ locker room following their rugged 94-89 win over Miami in Game 5, Kroenke mirrored on his soccer, hockey and basketball titles and couldn’t choose one over the opposite.
“It’s like having children: You love them all,” Kroenke stated. “It’s unbelievably exciting. I’m just so happy for everybody involved, particularly the city, which for 47 years they never had this.”
The Nuggets have been a founding franchise within the outdated ABA and performed for that league’s championship in 1976, falling in six video games to Julius Erving’s New York Nets. Later that yr, the NBA absorbed these groups together with the San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers, each of whom made the finals lengthy earlier than Denver did.
The Nuggets didn’t play for one more league title till this yr, and their clincher got here 55 years, seven months and 28 days after the crew received its first sport in franchise historical past over the Anaheim Amigos.
Even with the nice duo of NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, the top-seeded Nuggets didn’t have a simple time dispatching the No. 8 seed Heat.
“It was a dogfight,” Kroenke stated in a uncommon interview, which appear principally to return in locker room celebrations of late. “I imply, that’s how they play. They are powerful. That’s an excellent group. Great coach. Pat Riley’s wonderful, his affect on basketball and variety of championships. simply how intelligent they’re with every little thing.
“But that was a dogfight, and for our guys to go out there and persevere and win that thing, that was awesome.”
His Rams didn’t get previous the Bengals simply within the Super Bowl and his Avalanche acquired all they might deal with from the Lightning final yr.
“No, and I always say if you want to win a championship,” Kroenke stated, “you’ve got to go get it. Nobody’s going to make it available to you. And the guys over there are really good.”
Kroenke’s hope is that that is simply the beginning of an extended Nuggets run and that, in contrast to the Rams and Avalanche, they’ll defend their title in 2024.
“We’ve got a great group,” Kroenke stated.
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