MIAMI — The look in Nikola Jokic’s eyes went from murderous to euphoric in the second required for a long jump shot to leave the fingertips of Nuggets teammate Bruce Brown and rip a hole in the heart of the Miami Heat.
“When (Brown) did a step-back three, I almost … I wanted to punch him. But when he made it, I was so happy,” Jokic admitted in the early minutes of Saturday morning, after the clock struck midnight on the Cinderella dance by Miami through the NBA playoffs.
The Nuggets beat the Heat 108-95 to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals and move within one victory of the first championship in franchise history.
As Brown put the exclamation point on Game 4 by drilling a 3-point shot with one minute, 21 seconds, remaining in the fourth quarter, the reaction of Jokic was priceless. Standing on the baseline near Denver’s bench, the two-time MVP shrugged his massive shoulders with upturned palms that shouted “What the heck are you thinking?” when Brown launched his 27-foot shot.
But when the ball splashed through the net, Jokic nearly leapt out of his sneakers with joy, then whipped the floor with a towel so enthusiastically I thought he might turn the court into kindling.
In that glorious moment, with Joker’s spirits lifted by his band of merry Nuggets, it was possible to see why the team won’t be satisfied with just one championship parade around downtown Denver.
General manager Calvin Booth seems intent on constructing a contender built to last. Rather than sitting back at the Finals, he wheeled and dealed on the morning of Game 4 for future draft picks.
Now with the champagne so close the Nuggets can get a whiff of the sweet smell of success, the goal is not one, not two … but as many rings as Jokic can win before he retires and returns home to Serbia.
These Nuggets weren’t born champions. But they’ve grown up together to prove all their doubters wrong.
“When I first came into the league, I couldn’t shoot. I wasn’t confident shooting the ball at all. I was a mutt guy. They left me wide open and let me shoot. So that took a toll on my confidence, but it also put a chip on my shoulder,” recalled Brown, who scored 11 of his 21 points in the final period, thwarting any thought of a Miami rally, despite the fact Jokic spent over five minutes of crunch time on the bench in foul trouble.
Did Brown say chip? These Nuggets enter the arena with boulders on their shoulders.
Brown joined the team last summer after free agency left him feeling unwanted. Guard Jamal Murray is on a mission from the basketball gods to be recognized as an all-star. On his way to being the first player in NBA history to score 500 points, grab 250 rebounds and dish 150 assists in a single playoffs, the name of Jokic is still taken in vain, with the center recently labeled a ton of lard by ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith.
“The rumor coming into free agency last year was that I was getting a lot offers, which I wasn’t,” Brown recalled last month. “Nobody really wanted me, because they didn’t know if I could be a guard or not. So I kind of took it personal.”
I asked Booth what allowed him to envision Brown as an effective point guard for the Nuggets when other NBA teams lacked the imagination.
“I didn’t have to talk myself into it. I’ve always seen him as a point guard,” Booth said. “And I had it on videotape, all the way back to when he played at Miami in college.”
It wasn’t imagination, Booth humbly suggested. The belief in Brown was the byproduct of the never-ending grind and a commitment to doing homework on a player years before he gets a chance to make a star turn on the big stage of the Finals.
The long and winding road that brought Brown to Denver began way back in November 2017, when Booth traveled to Minneapolis to watch the Hurricanes play undefeated and 12th-ranked Minnesota.
On that night more than 5½ years ago, Brown scored 16 points and hauled in nine rebounds. But it was how he directed his team from the point — with five assists and no turnovers in an 86-81 upset victory — that caught Booth’s eye.
The homework paid off when the Nuggets scored a glue guy for a salary of $6.479 million, a bargain-basement price in free agency by today’s NBA standards.
After winning a championship with Denver, Brown is expected to use a player option in his two-year contract to re-enter the open market, where I expect he will get paid in excess of $15 million per year to play elsewhere.
“I’ve always been a player-first person,” Booth said. “With my roles in the front office, your job is to scout guys and help them realize their dreams. It is gratifying to see Bruce’s talent realized in a manner he likes and might get him rewarded financially.”
As much as the Nuggets would miss him, nobody could fault Brown for leaving the team to get paid.
Get a ring, than chase the bag.
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