DENVER (AP) — Stan Kronk’s sports empire has produced the NFL, National Basketball League and now NBA champions in three straight seasons.
His latest title came Monday night when the Denver Nuggets won their first championship after 47 years in the NBA. His Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in the Super Bowl after the 2021 season, and the Colorado Avalanche lifted the Stanley Cup last summer after serving out Tampa Bay in six games.
Through the spray of champagne and cigar smoke that chokes the Nuggets’ locker room after them Bumpy 94-89 win over Miami In Game 5, Kroenke thought about his football, hockey, and basketball titles and couldn’t choose one over the other.
“It’s like having children: You love them all,” said Kroenke. “It’s incredibly exciting. I’m so happy for everyone involved, especially the city, who haven’t had this for 47 years.”
The Nuggets were a founding franchise in the old ABA and played in that league championship in 1976, falling in six games to Julius Erving’s New York Nets. Later that year, those teams were absorbed by the NBA along with the San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers, both of whom were finalists long before Denver.
The Nuggets didn’t play for another league title until this year, and the clincher came 55 years, seven months, and 28 days after the team won its first game in franchise history over the Anaheim Amigos.
Even with the great duo NBA Finals MVP in Nikola Jokic And Jamal Murray, the top seeded Nuggets, didn’t have an easy time fielding the No. 8 seed Heat.
“It was an intense fight,” Kroenke said in a rare interview that seems to have come mostly in locker room festivities lately. “I mean, that’s how they play. They’re strong. Such a great organization. Great coach. Pat Riley is amazing, his influence on basketball and his number of championships. Just how smart they are with everything.”
“But it was a tough fight, and for our guys to get out there and persevere and win this thing, that was cool.”
His Rams didn’t easily get past the Bengals in the Super Bowl and his Avalanche got everything they could handle from last year’s Lightning.
“No,” said Kroenke, “and I always say if you want to win a championship, you have to get it. No one’s going to make it available for you. And the guys over there are really good.”
Kroenke hopes this is just the beginning of the Nuggets’ long run and that, unlike the Rams and Avalanche, they can defend their title In the year 2024.
“We have a great group,” said Kroenke.
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