After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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That's betterhelp.com slash positive. Whenever we get the chance to crown a champion, you know, these are my favorite shows on the calendar every year. We hope there will be four of these nights in the four major pro team sports. Super Bowl, the NBA Championship, the Stanley Cup, of course the World Series.

And sometimes we don't know if it'll be on a weekend and we miss it. So I relish the chances when we get to talk about a season that just wrapped up with a champion, especially like the one we've got in 2023 in the NBA. After nearly 50 years as an NBA franchise, another decade in the ABA, the Denver Nuggets, finally. With all the blood, sweat, tears, the various goofy iterations of their logo, the bright and gaudy uniforms, the revolving door of coaches and players, some of whom made a name for themselves and are even former All-Stars, Hall of Famers, they reached their first ever NBA Finals.

And what did Mike Malone tell us? Just to get there is not enough. After all of this, after everything we've poured into it, after the years that we prepared for this opportunity, it's not enough just to get there.

It's not enough just to get there. Nah, we actually have to close out the championship. They were the best in the West for most of the season, going back to December.

And they were clearly saving the best for last when they finally got the chance to win the first title in their franchise history. The Nuggets lead it by five. Denver looking to win the NBA Championship. And here we go. Lowry looks in.

Inbound. Over to Stuis. Lowry, three.

That one misses. Rebound down to Casey B. Eight seconds left to go.

Casey's across the timeline and he'll dribble it out. The 47-year wait is over. The Denver Nuggets stand on top of the NBA world. They are champions.

And Nuggets fans from sea to shining sea can rest or die in peace. Oh my God. I can't believe they did it. Cause for two seconds, take your headsets off and just listen to this crowd. Wow.

The confetti. Pat Riley said something many years ago. I used to have it up on my board when I was a head coach in Sacramento. And I talked about the evolution in this game and how you go from a nobody to an upstart and you go an upstart to a winner and a winner to a contender and a contender to a champion. And the last step is after a champion is to be a dynasty.

So we're not satisfied. We accomplished something this franchise has never done before, but we have a lot of young, talented players in that locker room. And I think we just showed through 16 playoff wins what we're capable of on the biggest stage in the world. And the best part about it is the people I just did that with. I mean, I love those guys. I love my coaches. Stan and Josh Cronkety are incredible owners, their support, their continued belief, Calvin Booth, first year as a GM. And I just have to say on a personal note, a huge thank you to my mother and father. You know, I just spoke to them, let them know how much they're a part of this. Their love and support all along has meant the world to me.

My beautiful wife, Jocelyn, my two daughters, Kaitlyn and Bridget, I'm a really blessed person. Since day one in San Diego, it was something different about this team. I felt that I felt something different, different energy. And every day since the season, since that day, it was, I had the same feeling.

So I'm not really optimistic guy, but that that gave me hope that we can do something. Nicola Jokic and others like Bruce Brown mentioned that this started back in San Diego in training camp and that they knew they had something special even then, but it did not come without the requisite blood, sweat, tears, trials. Jamal Murray, speaking of tears, he was an emotional mess when the final buzzer sounded and for good reason. The relief, the emotional release, he missed the last two post-seasons. He couldn't be part of what the Nuggets were doing and he wasn't the only one. Michael Porter also suffering multiple back injuries and setbacks and couldn't be part of what they were doing in full force either. But man, when it all comes together, when it's the culmination of, for Mike Malone and Nicola Jokic eight years, Jamal Murray joining them seven years ago, the pieces that they brought to town and the way they drafted too, right? The majority of this core has come through the draft and then building. But even Aaron Gordon joining them in the 2021 season, halfway through out of Orlando, how critical he's been. His two, as I call it, but his toughness and his defense, they needed that. It took every last one of these guys, even DeAndre Jordan who plays three minutes in the closeout game five in Denver last night. But behind Jason Kosmicke on Nuggets radio, you can hear the ground swell of noise and adulation. How about this? Back-to-back years, Colorado sports fans, Denver sports fans get to celebrate a championship from the winter season. I'm using my own quotations. Avalanche last year, Denver Nuggets this year, though they had to wait a heck of a lot longer.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. Nicola Jokic, he did not win the NBA regular season MVP, but he did win the finals MVP. No doubt he wouldn't trade it.

He wouldn't swap with Joel Embiid. Is he the best player in the NBA? We know MVP can take on a variety of definitions.

It depends on the voter. How you define most valuable? We're just looking straight up based on talent and impact. Who's the best player in the NBA?

So we put it out there as a question on our show Twitter after our CBS and many of you weighing in that way. Aaron says, Joker, pretty simple. He's good. It's succinct.

It gets straight to the point. Joe on Twitter, by far it's Jokic. Versatile, humble, a winner, much more dimensional than the overhyped, overrated Shaquille O'Neal. And Joe says Jokic is one of the centers he'd take over him. Though Stan goes with the Greek freak.

So those are just a few of the answers on Twitter. I actually was looking over our Facebook page and I would say the vast majority of you are going with Nicola Jokic. Man, Mike Malone's been asking for this kind of respect all season long and may finally have it. So for Nicola, it wasn't a triple-double, but it was 28 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists. Even though he got into early foul trouble, he was out there on the court 42 minutes. I tell you what, in a game in which there were long stretches where, and it was a bit of a roller coaster ride or a seesaw, if you will, back and forth. Long stretches where neither team could shoot. Man, in the first quarter, the Heat missed, what, 12 shots in a row? The Nuggets missed 10 free throws and they misfired on 20 of their first 22 triples.

It was brutal at times. They were tied at 88 with two minutes to go in the game. And actually, if you dial it back even farther, Miami was up 71-70 to start the fourth quarter.

71 to 70. Do you know there are teams, including the Nuggets, I remember, who score 70 points in the first half? And these two teams, they were having trouble buying baskets on the black market. And so yeah, with Nicola on the bench in the first half, Miami's able to lead at the break and a good back and forth. How many times have we seen the Heat put together just enough of a run in the fourth quarter to make things interesting?

And wait until you hear from Eric Spoelstra and Jimmy Butler, bam out of bio, that's coming up here in 10 minutes on After Hours, CBS Sports Radio. So Nicola Jokic, the unanimous NBA Finals MVP, and it matters to him that they did it as a group. It matters to him that they finally were able to capitalize on this opportunity after a bunch of years of coming close but falling flat on their faces. If you want to be successful, you need a couple years. You need to be bad, then you need to be good, and then you need to figure it. Then when you're good, you need to fail.

And then when you fail, you're going to figure it out. I think this experience is something that is not what happened to you. It's what you're going to do with what happened to you. It's a good feeling when you know that you did something that nobody believes, and it was just us. It's just the organization that believe in us. Every player believe in each other, and I think that's the most important thing.

It's been amazing, you know, because you can look at it one of two ways. You can look at it from the basketball perspective, two MVPs, Finals MVP, World Championship, and you can look at it from the basketball perspective. You can look at the relationship and everything he's done on the court. And then more important for me, you can look at off the court, the relationship, you know, the love that I have for Nikola, his mother and father back in Sombor, Serbia, his brothers Nemanja and Strahina, his wife Natalia and their daughter Ojena. You know, they're a wonderful family that I've gotten very close to, and I've said this many times before, but Nikola, even tonight, like he's acting like this was another game.

He's never changed with all the success, and he never will, it's just not in his nature. So, you know, I love Nikola, eight years, love Jamal, seven years, been through a lot, and just for all of us to stay the course, to challenge ourselves to all get better collectively, individually. So, yeah, it's great to be a part of such a historically great player who's an even better person, and I mean that sincerely.

This is not coach talk. Nikola is just a great, great man. A few things that jump out at me from watching the game and then the post game. When he talks about family and Nikola Jokic as a better person and a family man, well that plays right into how Mike Malone wanted to build this team, and actually plays into the Kroenke family who owns this team, right, and who stuck with him, and who did not fire him after three seasons of not making the playoffs when Malone was first hired from Sacramento, or he got fired by Sacramento and then got hired in Denver. In the postgame locker room, the championship locker room, if you will, Mike Malone interrupts their champagne celebration, interrupts the spraying of adult beverages, and says, hey, hey, real quick, real quick, he has to try to get their attention more than once, and finally he says, family on three, like we've done all year, I want to hear it from you, family on three, and he says the one, two, three, and the team all around him shouts out, family, and there's an extra emphasis on it. If that doesn't tell you something, how often do you, and there's nothing wrong with teams saying win together, there's nothing wrong with teams saying defense, or whatever other mantra or final word that they believe signifies who they are and what they're about, but for Mike Malone, it's family, and they've been doing that since the beginning of the year, so that I love. Also, Nikolay Jokic, speaking of family, gets picked up, this is a seven-footer who weighs a lot, he gets picked up by one of his brothers after the championship is clinched, his brother's picking him up and carrying him around, and then, as if that wasn't enough, his other, so that he's got two brothers, they both pick up Mike Malone, they're tossing him around like a rag doll as part of the celebration.

That was really cool. I'm not sure you've ever seen a more unassuming acceptance of the NBA Finals MVP, the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP. Nicola almost looked embarrassed, I mean he smiled, yes, but you know what, it was such a contrast from I think it was fourth quarter when there was a timeout, the Nuggets were not playing well, Jokic pitched a fit on the bench, did you guys see that? He's yelling, he's screaming, he's agitated, he doesn't like how they're playing, he can't believe that the Heat have come back again to take the lead, and it was Jeff Green who went up to him, he's a veteran player, only had a handful of minutes in this game though, he's had some important spot minutes through the playoffs, and he gets in Nicola's face, kind of whispers in his ear, calms him down, even kissed him on the head.

That was the report actually on ESPN radio. Mark Kestacher joined us from Denver a couple hours ago with some great stories, if you missed it, it's on our podcast and it'll be on both of our social media sites, but yeah even Nicola, as calm as he is, got agitated there late and it took one of his teammates, another family member, to calm him down, remind him that they were exactly where they wanted to be. Can you imagine how Serbian sports fans feel right now? Two and a half incredible days, we have Nicola Jokic win the NBA Finals MVP on the heels of Novak Djokovic, the other joker, becoming the all-time leader in Grand Slam singles titles for the men with his 23rd at the French. One of my favorite stories, other than Jeff Green who spent 16 years in the NBA and finally has a ring, 14 franchises I think I counted?

14! And do you guys remember that, gosh, I think it was over a decade ago, he missed an entire season with a heart condition. He's been through everything, imagine how his heart beats now and how full it is. Jamal Murray, he was the one who was really emotional, camera's focused on him of course as he's crying, once the final buzzer sounded and then again during the trophy ceremony letting it all out, letting it all out, letting it all hang out, all that emotion. I couldn't really hold it I couldn't really hold it in, it was just a surreal moment and everything was hitting, you know what I'm saying, like everything was hitting at once from the journey to the celebration with the guys, to enjoying the moment, to looking back on on the rehab, to looking back as myself as a kid, as the other viewer, you know what I'm saying, looking from the crowd in or from the camera lens in just to see it full circle and have total belief in myself, have the team, have total belief in me, people back home had total belief in me.

That's all I could ever ask for and just to see like this is amazing. He missed the last two playoffs, remember he tore his ACL late in the 21 season and had to be away obviously for rehab and recovery and wasn't able to participate in the last two playoffs. Michael Porter, we talked about him with the injuries too, the Nuggets thought they had the formula, they thought they were there and after making, really the the attention that they grabbed in the bubble after making the West Finals against the Lakers, they felt like they were onto something and only to see that get derailed but it was part of the process as Jokic says and speaking of the process, did Jamal Murray ever think that this wouldn't be possible playing again at the highest level after what he went through? I knew I was gonna suck for the first few games like I had to live with that. I knew I wasn't gonna put up 40-50 points in the first couple games. I always say if you go back to the first game in Utah, I picked up the ball in the paint like five times I could count like I was so lost. I had never felt being that lost in the court before. I just didn't want to go into the paint or jump or land or feel contact and just how far I've come from that moment.

I still have different moments where I'm tentative, best word for me to put it, to do certain actions, rebounding among everybody but I've just gotten so much better at that and just putting that behind not just me. Mike too, I think Mike, a shout out to Mike, he's gone through so many different injuries and to see him constantly stay locked in, be a team player and grow his game in different aspects to have an all-around game. You know, Ethan's not shooting well. It's just really great to see the growth of this team. Growing even over the course of these playoffs, right? How many times did we see them get a little soft, take their foot off the gas in the fourth quarter? They did not have the killer instinct that the Heat had.

They did not drive it like they stole it. Nah, they'd get a lead and then they'd let their intensity wane. That's why Mike Malone lit into them. Well, he did in the locker room, he was disappointed with them but then he also went public and said after game two, this is the second fourth quarter we've lost. We didn't have enough intensity.

Where was it? We need it. And so even over the course of the playoffs, we saw this team get better, finally able to slam the door in the fourth quarters and even in game five, giving up the lead but getting the steal off Jimmy Butler in the final 30 seconds, making their last four free throws, defending so that they didn't give up good looks from deep and allow this one to slip away. And Jamal Murray mentions Michael Porter. This may be one of my favorite post-championship sound bites from Porter who did struggle offensively in the series until last night.

16 points. Did you guys see the, let's see, it was behind him as he's on a breakaway after a steal. From behind, he goes through his own legs, fumbles it a little bit. It wasn't clean like a Steph Curry but the ball comes up the other side, nutmegs himself as Jason Kosmicke said and then is able to convert the layup.

So 16 points, 13 rebounds, great athleticism, good defense. You can imagine that he's thrilled with how he finished. Though I did hear him say afterwards, I don't care if I have two points in the entire series.

All I care about is that I have a ring and yeah still dawning on him. I'm not even supposed to be here to be honest with you. Like after everything I've been through, I don't know, like I'm not really supposed to be a world champion.

But to do it with this group of dudes after everything that I, hey man, you can leave that there, you know what I'm saying. That's the trophy. I can't describe it. It just, I look back on everything, how hard I worked and it just feels surreal. Congratulations to the Denver Nuggets. They've all got individual stories that brought them together for such a time as this.

This is what I love about sports is the human element. The heart, the soul, the blood, the sweat, the tears, the pain, the suffering, the failure, the dark moments that maybe try to convince you that this is not possible. That being a champion, that being the last team standing, that having it all come together, it'll never happen.

Your dreams will never come true. The Nuggets are an inspiration. Their story is an inspiration.

How they built it, who they built it with, and how they finally won. But you know what, the Heat are an inspiration too. And we'll hear from Eric Spolstro, who I'm pretty sure could be a motivational speaker in his spare time if he was interested.

The Heat locker room in the wake of coming up to short. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You can find me on Twitter, A-LOL Radio. Good to hear from you. Thanks so much for all of your responses and your reaction to Peter Schwartz and his cameo here in studio.

Who is the best player in the NBA? Is it Yogi? Are you still going some other direction? It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Good morning. It's a Tuesday. You're on CBS Sports Radio.

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That's point.me. We're at the logo, moves it to Jimmy. Everybody, get out of the way.

Here comes Puff. Drive, pauses at the top of the yard, looking for help, threw it away to KCP. All up to Murray, after the foul. Jimmy slipped on the ground, and he didn't fall, but he did it. He did it. He did it.

He did it. Jimmy did it. Jimmy did it. Jimmy did it. Jimmy did it. Jimmy did it. Jimmy did it.

Jimmy did it. And he didn't fall, but you could tell. He knew he needed to get the ball out of his hands. He was out of off-balance, out of position. Foul on Lowry, his fifth.

Into Jimmy, top of the yard. He's holding. He got it to Duncan. Duncan bobbled it to Jimmy. Spins, fires, kisses it, misses it. Rebound by Brown, who just got fouled. 14.3 remains. This place is ready to celebrate its first championship in team history, but too much still to happen.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Jason Jackson and Ruth Riley on Miami Heat radio did not become the first 8th seed to win an NBA title, but boy, they continue to do it the hard way. And honestly, that's part of why they're still alive. It's part of why they survived to this point is because they did not take the easy road, so they were battle tested.

Battle tested and disappointed. That final stretch when they had the lead multiple times in the fourth quarter and even with two minutes to go, they're still tied with Denver in game five. Those last three or four minutes felt like a scene out of a movie.

Two teams in the center of the ring throwing haymaker after haymaker and it's not necessarily shot making. It was the efforts. Guys were staggering around because both teams were playing and competing so hard.

That's about as hard. I don't know how long that'll take me to go through the autopsy of this final game, but I would say that will probably rank as our hardest, competitive, most active defensive game of the season and it still fell short. I think through the duration of the game, they got a lot of relief points in the officer rebounds, run outs and transition.

You know, us on miscommunications and so forth, so I wouldn't say it was just the last two minutes. Bam Adebayo following up on Eric Spolstra for the Miami Heat. Bam had another double-double. He had a really strong NBA Finals.

20 points, 12 rebounds. Jimmy Butler not so much. I mean, there was still the Jimmy Butler stat line. There was still the Jimmy Butler defense.

Obviously, what Butler told us over and over with the unwavering confidence in who they are and how they play and their identity. None of that changed, but there are many questions about his ankle and if you go back to round two against the Knicks, he missed a game, right, in round two. And according to our friend Mark Kestisher who joined us from Denver, he called the game nationally on ESPN radio and he gave us great insight. He actually saw Jimmy in the hallways around the locker rooms after the game and he said Jimmy was was limping pretty badly and if you were watching the game, you could tell he didn't have a ton of lift or explosiveness off that foot, but man was he game.

He just stayed out there and he was asked what stood out about the final two minutes and all he would say is that he turned the ball over with 30 seconds to go. So clearly bearing the brunt of this himself, but says don't blame the offense. Don't blame our shooting for the reason that we lost. We just missed shots. That's what this league is about. You know, we make two or three more shots. That's what it's been for us all year long. I think we did enough to win.

You know, you guard well. We're still in a position to win. You don't have to score 100 points to win a basketball game. I think we'll be okay. You know, that's Coach Patton and Coach Bowles' job to put together another team, which I'm confident that they will do and we'll take it from there. Sometimes it's true in sport and also in life that you don't always get what you want, but there's no regrets from our side. Everybody, staff, player alike in the locker room, put themselves out there and put themselves into the team, whatever was best for the team. And the tough pill to swallow is it just wasn't good enough. We ran it up against a team that was just better than us in this series. And you have to tip your hat to them. I said it, but they're one hell of a basketball team. Isn't that the truth, Eric Spulstra?

Sometimes in life, you just don't get what you want. I admire him so much, the tone he sets for his team. Of course, it has to be accepted and the players have to buy in, but they did.

Heart, soul, mind, body, spirit. This is who the Heat are and it's why they're relevant. It's why they've gone to three Eastern Conference Finals in the last four years. It's why they continue, even with a roster that's kind of mix and match. They continue to be, even in a season where they're one of the worst shooting teams in the entire NBA, they still are a tough out.

They're still so hard to grapple with because of how hard they play. For Kyle Lowry, for Kevin Love, NBA champions, Udonis Haslam too, who says he's retiring after this run, but will join the Heat in some capacity. And these are guys that were part of the culture and extending the culture. Remember how many undrafted players we've talked about over the course of this run by the Heat as an eight seed.

Bim Adepayo is tired of hearing about that. They need to put more respect on undrafted players. They're still basketball players at the end of the day and obviously you've seen they can take you there.

So for me, man, it was a joy to get this far and have these type of guys undrafted fighting to make a name for themselves. And not just the undrafted players, but the players that were cast offs elsewhere, right? The players that got cut, like a Max Truce, who was cut by the Celtics a couple of years ago. They find a home. They found a home. Jimmy Butler has found a home in Miami, but I like how Max Truce puts it. The fact is that, again, you got to buy into this culture, but it's, I don't want to call them misfits because that's not fair, but it's a bunch of guys who come from all different places.

Some of them drafted, but a lot of these veterans come from elsewhere. We're not talking about the big three in Miami where they crafted their own core in LeBron and Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. No, these are guys that were brought in because they fit what Pat Riley and Eric Spoelstra want to do and because when they got there, they didn't care what their roles were. All they cared about was winning and so I love what we see as the character of this group. It's hard to put into words right now.

Still trying to get over this. We didn't want to be done and I think the biggest part about that was the fun we had together. This group, after we picked up Kevin Love and Cody Zeller, it was just unique how we all came together. I think this is a team that a lot of people can relate to. If you've ever felt that you were dismissed or felt that you were made to feel less than, a lot of people in our locker room that probably have had that and there's probably a lot of people out there that have felt that at some time or another, but also the way this team handled setbacks and adversity to develop a collective grit and perseverance. I mentioned this before that hopefully these are lessons that will transcend this beautiful game. That hopefully these are lessons that we can pass along to our children. That even though it is sport, that you can learn lessons of life from this game and that you can persevere.

You can handle what people may view as many failures along the way and become stronger from it and to be able to overcome things and find beautiful things on the other side of that. Seriously, are you not inspired by Eric Spolstra? He's pretty consistent in what he has to say. He's big picture.

He's all about the journey and he'd be a motivational speaker. Yeah, this is a team that inspires as well, both the nuggets and the heat. Maybe you didn't think it was the sexiest of NBA Finals, but I love the stories to come out of it. Two incredible runs as we tie a bow on the Nuggets first championship, but also on this NBA season that went on forever. On Twitter, A Law Radio, who's the best player in the NBA? I've seen a few of you venture different names. So we've seen some Giannis. I just saw one for Steph Curry on our Facebook page.

Luka Doncic getting a vote or a write in here or there, but right now we've got Jokic running away in our poll. Hey, can you hear me? Okay, good. Well, so can your potential customers right here on your Odyssey station. You might be used to skipping social ads, but you are still listening to me right now.

And so are your clients. To learn how to drive more business and how Odyssey can help get your message to your customers, visit stateofaudio.com. That's stateofaudio.com. An NBA Finals MVP. It's better than a regular season MVP.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Denver gets a stop. You win the title. Jimmy Butler on the inbound, guarded by Aaron Gordon. Hands off behind him to Robinson, back over to Butler for three.

He missed it. Rebound, Bruce Brown. There's a foul. 14.3 seconds left to go in the basketball game.

All you need is to make one. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Even now I look up on the TV screen and there are exactly 14 seconds left in the replay inside ball arena as the Nuggets fans begin to celebrate their victory over Miami. Peyton Manning did an interview with NBA TV when it was done. Russell Wilson and Ciara, they were also there. Former Nuggets All-Stars for what is the culmination of a long time.

50 plus years if you go back to the ABA days of this franchise. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. NBA Finals MVP Nicole Jokic. Jason Kosmicki there on Nuggets radio. We did a chance to catch up with the national play-by-play voice of the NBA. Mark Kestescher, longtime friend of mine from ESPN radio. Really great insight from him about this Nuggets Heat series.

Wanted to just replay a couple of minutes as we head up toward the top of the hour. We'll pick it up where I asked him ultimately what was the difference between these two teams in the series? I think, well for Denver, I mean they're such a team. More so than Jokic and Murray. Had the dueling 30 point triple doubles in game three. Eric Spolstra threw just about every defense he can.

All the different adjustments he can. Get the ball out of Jokic's hands. Get the ball out of Murray's hands. And the difference to me was in game four, Aaron Gordon stood up and so did Bruce Brown off the bench with Jokic five minutes on the bench in foul trouble and they're double teaming Murray. They have so many weapons and that's what if you didn't watch Denver basketball during the regular season and you know Jokic and you know Murray, you don't know anybody else. And Michael Porter Jr. for as much of a struggle as it was in the Finals, had a great return from his third back surgery this year. Had a really good season.

Aaron Gordon was kind of the missing piece for these guys. He was a guy with the ball in his hands, athletic as all get out in Orlando on a losing team and he finally got to the point where he wanted a chance to play for a title and he was able to work a trade out with Orlando and accepted a role as a role player for as good as he is. And Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, excellent defender, three-point shooter, won a championship in the bubble. Bruce Brown who we talked about you know another guy they got it a really good contract who it's all about team. Like there's no ego on this team and they they take their orders from Michael Malone who's one of the great coaches in the league and has been for a long time, long time assistant and we already talked about Jokic who has as little ego as you can for a two-time MVP and now a Finals MVP and it's a team.

And it'll be interesting to see you know championship, parade, summer, read all the great quotes about you and then come back and see if they could do it again. But outside of Bruce Brown they're gonna have all these guys back you know the the core of this team is signed up and you know I don't like to talk you know back to back too soon but it is a team that is going to be positioned very well in the Western Conference. Jamal Murray, you mentioned the emotion and really the release as he's there on the court and it all comes flooding back it actually reminded me of what we saw with Klay Thompson in the NBA Finals last year and how emotional he was after coming back from his injuries. He's obviously an incredible shooter, there's so much more to him. You've watched him develop, you were in the bubble actually when the Nuggets kind of served notice that they were a force to be reckoned with. How have you seen him grow, change, maybe become a better leader over the course of his time with the injuries and then returning to the game?

I think that's a great point is him becoming more of a leader. I think you get perspective now he's much younger than Klay Thompson but I noticed last year in the lead up to the Finals Klay Thompson had a different perspective than he ever had like he was so happy to have the game of basketball back. Now he had back-to-back really bad injuries and didn't know if he was ever going to play again to that level or win a championship with that group and they did. So it's a different story but I think Jamal Murray who was fast-tracking in the bubble missed two post-seasons. We were talking to him yesterday in our interview room and it was Doris Burke who did the interview yesterday and she talked about what were the dark times like and he said the dark times didn't last long.

There was darkness in the beginning of him rehabbing but he said after a few weeks he noticed improvement, little improvement. And another week later, little improvement and then all of a sudden he realized I'm putting more plates on the on the weight rack and I'm able to do a little bit more and from then he said his disposition changed completely and he watched Nikola Jokic carry a team without him, without Michael Porter to a six seed in the playoffs last year and even though they got knocked out early they had a sense once he got back this year, once he got into his groove, this was a team to be reckoned with and I think I said it at the end of the broadcast, Denver snuck up on a lot of people but they shouldn't have. They were number one in the West December 20th. They took over sole possession of number one in the West on Christmas day and no one caught them since and they had a great run through the playoffs winning 16 out of 20. I mean this is just legit team and I think Murray recognized all the hard work they put in and that they're just in the middle of it now and it was and his parents flew in from Canada. It was very overwhelming I'm sure. Not only was this a big week for Serbia, big three days for Serbia, but how about a couple of really huge days for Canadian sports with Nick Taylor capturing the RBC Canadian Open and the wild celebration that ensued including Adam Hadwin getting tackled when he's trying to spray champagne on his friend and now Jamal Murray, first time NBA champion from Canada and his parents were able to be there as well.

It's really cool. If you missed any of that conversation with Mark, I hope you'll grab it. Really interesting stories and insight about other members of the Nuggets as well as the Heat and great stuff about Mike Malone. So if you missed it, Mike Malone and we've talked about this, we played a bunch of sound bites from him over the course of the last, oh gosh, three, four weeks. He got super salty during the the Lakers series but even going back to the end of the regular season. So before he gets started raving about his team and winning a championship and Nikola Jokic and everything else, yeah this is how he starts the press conference. I'm really enjoying this moment so don't screw it up by asking a stupid question. What a bad press room by the way. True to form for Mike Malone, put that in your pipe and smoke it.

You put that in your pipe, you smoke it. Oh my gosh, he has been on a tear, a bit of a rampage if you will. Soft. Over the past few weeks and it's been great stuff.

He will land in the Hall of Flame or at the very least a Hall of Flame induction to come sometime this summer. All right, it's great to connect with you tonight. We still have, or this morning now, sorry, we still have our poll up. Who is the best player in the NBA? And maybe there is recency bias. I've seen other votes, write-ins for Kevin Durant, for Giannis, for Steph Curry.

I've seen Luka Doncic but the majority of you right now are saying Nikola Jokic and he doesn't really care. He's just ready to go home. Actually doesn't even want to stick around for the ticker tape parade in Denver. Anyway, tonight we could have another champion crowd. We'll see if the Golden Knights win their first Stanley Cup. Join us back here tonight, Tuesday it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Boom!

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