After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

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Visit Max.com for details. The Nuggets lead it by five. Denver looking to win the NBA championship. And here we go. Lowry looks in. Inbound. Over to Stu, it's Lowry, three.

That one misses. Rebound down to Casey P. 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. Roger. Wow.

Wow. The confetti. I'm really enjoying this moment, so don't screw it up by asking a stupid question. Mike Malone, salty to the end. Congratulations to the Denver Nuggets. NBA champions. Champions of the world for the first time in their franchise history. I love these stories.

I am a sucker for these types of emotional storylines. The history, all of the work, the blood, the sweat, the tears, the building, the foundation, the striving, the failure. Coming close only to be denied.

The stumbles, the struggles, and the rise. Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., they certainly know all about injuries, keeping them off the basketball court. You've got guys who joined this Nuggets party in the last couple of years and added such a depth, elements they needed, like Bruce Brown. Contavious Caldwell Pope.

Every guy not only knows his role, but loves his role. And then Nicole Jokic. NBA Finals MVP, so this year not the regular season MVP, but what are the chances he would trade his MVP for the one that Juela Embiid now owns? Congratulations to the Denver Nuggets. The Miami Heat, they were game.

They were up for the challenge. The game was tied with two minutes to go. Miami fought back time and time again, over and over. How many eight-nothing runs did we see in the fourth quarters of this NBA Finals series?

It seemed like every single game, I'd have to go back and look, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was four out of five. Four out of five Finals games, the Heat put together a charge in the fourth quarter. And going back to game two in Denver, they actually charged all the way to the win. Ultimately, Michael Malone told them, you win the fourth quarter, you win the game.

You win the fourth quarters, well, you'll win the series. It took them tripping up in game two on their own court to recognize they couldn't just go out there with their uniforms on, chuck and duck, and believe this was going to come to them without digging down deep. And so we saw, even in this Finals series, the Nuggets learn, adapt, change, get better, and ultimately clinch the Larry O'Brien trophy, but not without a rock fight. Man, this game, the winner had 94 points. The winner missed 10 free throws. The winner missed 20 of its first 22 three-point attempts. Oh, it was some ugly freaking basketball at times. Not only was it a rock fight, but the rocks were bricks most of the time.

Oi! The score was 88 to 88 with two minutes to go. It's old school basketball, but mostly because they refused to stop jack and threes. Do you know what I heard in the championship locker room that stood out to me?

I put it on Twitter. Mike Malone in the midst of a championship celebration with champagne and all other manner of beverage spraying all over the place. He had to try more than once to get his team's attention. He's in the middle.

He's yelling, hey, real quick, hey, real quick. He finally gets their attention. Family on three, like we've done all year. And when they counted one, two, three, there was a drawn out family. It was pretty sweet.

I love being a witness to history. And on top of that, we only get to do these championship shows four times a year at most. Sometimes the championships fall on the weekends and we don't have the opportunity to crown them champion in the wake of the clincher.

But tonight we do. Lots of reaction. And could I tell you, as much as I love the reaction of the Nuggets, I'm so blown away by Eric's bolster and what he has to say. The man could be an inspirational speaker.

He could travel the world inspiring people. Because he sees the bigger picture. Speaking of bigger picture.

You've heard it a bunch over the past week and a half. Nikola Jokic, best player in the NBA. Not most valuable player. And sometimes that definition. It is changeable. From voter to voter, analyst to analyst, fan to fan.

But who is the best player? That one's not so. It's not so.

So easily. It's not so malleable. When it comes to MVP, there are many different ways to define it when it comes to best player. Well, not quite so flexible, as I say.

It's pretty much a rigid category. Best player in the NBA. And who is it?

That's our question for tonight. And sure, I'd love to get your reaction on the Denver Nuggets. Nikola Jokic, a unanimous NBA Finals MVP. Jamal Murray, tears.

I mean, overcome with emotion. A little bit like what we saw from Steph Curry last year. Jamal needed a moment and he'll explain why. Aaron Gordon with the defense. Bruce Brown with his tenacity.

Michael Porter Jr. with his athleticism. And this was a night in which he scored as well. Early on, he was one reason why the Nuggets didn't fall behind by double figures. Because the Heat had the lead for most of that first half.

I guess they did fall behind once by ten. But Michael Porter Jr., one of the reasons why they didn't fall further behind. And did you see his sweet move on a breakaway steal? As Jason Kosmicki said on Denver Nuggets radio, he nutmegged himself. Ball between his legs for a layup.

To see what Contavious Caldwell Pope brought to the table now has his second ring. For the Nuggets, this is bigger than this group, right? It's about nearly a half century in the NBA. And then a decade, just about a decade in the ABA, having been the laughingstock of the league for quite a while. And partly because of those uniforms and the logos. Man, there had to be a half dozen logos in Denver Nuggets history.

Some of them were cartoonish. Going back to the beginning of the Western Conference Finals, as I was watching the Nuggets versus the Lakers, it dawned on me. After years. And it's this group of Lakers, because Mike Malone and Nicola Jokic have been together for eight years. Malone's been with Jamal Murray for seven years. So this core has been together.

It's got some pieces that came in from other places. Aaron Gordon, he joined the team midway through the 2021 season. Remember, he was with Orlando. So they didn't all start in Denver, but the core did, similar to the Warriors again. But as I was watching the Western Conference Finals, what dawned on me is that these Nuggets are done getting pushed around. They're done. If you remember, I tweeted that and I talked about it on the air.

In fact, I may go back and find the tweet again. The Nuggets are done being pushed around. They're not soft. They're not an offense only team.

Nicola Jokic doesn't stat pad. They're not a team that has a ton of potential and can't capitalize on opportunity. Now they're a family who figured it out. Wasn't easy. It wasn't some meteoric rise to the top.

No, this took years. Whatever else you say about the Nuggets, they are now NBA champions. And Michael Malone, he softened up a little bit after he told the media not to ask him any stupid questions. He decided he would be generous and open and so full of gratefulness and thankfulness. 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. 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 Cronkite 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, Caitlin and Bridget.

I'm a really blessed person. I'm so happy for Michael Malone. I know he's been super salty over the course of the last month, even going back farther. Late in the regular season, they had to deal with a stretch where they were playing poor basketball. Nicole Jokic was out. It was rough. It was a long season. They'd been the top seed. They'd been the number one team in the West for a long time. And they could feel the pressure a little bit, but mostly it just was a long season. They were ready to get to the postseason. Mike Malone knows how to push all the buttons. He knew how to get the best out of his team and the number of adjustments they made. The number of ways that he was able to eke every last ounce of effort, energy, experience, all of that was necessary for the Nuggets to get to this point. And it's pretty impressive if you see where they were at the end of the regular season versus where they are now. Of course, Nicole Jokic, the centerpiece.

No pun intended. He wins the NBA Finals MVP. First time in league history that one player has led all teams, all athletes in the postseason in points, rebounds, assists.

Well, that certainly seems like an MVP. Although his brothers deserve the credit for picking up Mike Malone and throwing him around like he's a ragdoll. Did you see his brothers? They're gigantic.

They're like lumberjacks. Jokic did not exult, jump up and down, grab his teammates, grab the basketball, scream at the top of his lungs when the final buzzer sounded. Do you know what Jokic did? He turned because he was standing right next to the Miami bench and he sought out every single member of the Heat roster to give them a handshake.

That's what he did first. So when Mike Malone tells you that he is a quality, class, gracious human being, it's just one way that you know it's true. Jokic wanted to congratulate the Heat for their run before he celebrated with his own team. We'll hear from Jokic, but Mike Malone now finally validated in all of those moments when he defended his star to the hilt.

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 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 Nicola, his mother and father back in Sombor, Serbia, his brothers Nemanja and Strajina, 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 Nicola, even tonight, like he's kind of acting like this was just 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 Nicola, 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.

Nicole is just a great, great man. Congratulations to Michael Malone and the Denver Nuggets on the first championship, the first Larry O'Brien trophy in franchise history. And coming up, you'll hear from the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP.

So, yeah, he did actually win an MVP. But my question is, who's the best player in the NBA right now? Not who's the most valuable. Who's the best player in the league right now? Is it Jokic? Maybe we have recency bias and that's OK.

Think if you see what he's done over the course of the last three years. But definitely during this postseason run, as he set record after record after record for triple doubles and now, of course, leading. All NBA players in points, rebounds, assists in this run, he did have more games, but. It's still a feat for a seven footer. It's a feat for any NBA player, but for a seven footer, a center. Who is the best player in the NBA?

Is it Jokic or would you go a different direction? So glad to have you with us on what is a Monday night. Hope you survived your Manic Monday. I had a couple of interesting Monday moments, but it's all right.

It's now in the rearview mirror. We got a ton of rain. Oh, so happy, except I became obsessive and I started checking the radar every five minutes in the evening. The rain finally started about, oh gosh, eight o'clock Eastern Time, I guess. And it was pounding the skylight in the bathroom.

It was pounding the windows. It was fantastic. I hope we get some more. Not sure what could be better. A Monday night with. A ton of rain to saturate the earth where we'd had none for three weeks.

And then a championship to go along with it. I'm a sucker for these stories. You know me. Redemption, history, joy, blood, sweat, tears. Congratulations to Denver. So you get your head.

Jamal Murray. Why was he sobbing his eyes out? I always love that question. Yo, why are you crying, dude? And then wait until you hear what Eric Spolster had to say. I respect him every time I hear him talk about life lessons, big picture. Thriving and learning from failure. I'm telling you, that man could be an inspirational speaker.

Travel the world and speak once you're done coaching. Please find me on Twitter, A Law Radio. I did go back and find that post from about a month ago. When I told you the Denver Nuggets are done getting pushed around. I needed to have the visual evidence. So on Twitter, A Law Radio and then our Facebook page too.

We'll put the post up. Who is the best player in the NBA right now? It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. When the whole family comes together to watch the game, nobody wants to miss a second of the action to run to the grocery store. With Instacart, you can get all your weekly groceries in as fast as an hour.

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Better flights, fewer points. Get started today at point.me. That's point.me. Murray has it across the timeline. He's on the high right side working against Caleb Martin.

A bucket here. This place is going to explode again. KCP has it on the high left side, throws it off over to Joker, floater.

Yes! Denver leads it by seven. Kaleb, the drive, the attack, gets it to Jimmy, another three right side. He got that one.

The Butler finally did it. Made a three right on time from the right side. It's a four-point game. Jamal Murray has it across the timeline, guarded by Caleb Martin. He goes to the left hand, gets a high pick from the Koliokas, dribbles behind his back. Throws out of it over to Casey for three.

Yeah! Let's go, Denver! Let's go! All-Well Pope in front. Pulls it back behind the line. Now diving into the mid-post. Puts it up and in. Oh, Jimmy.

He may not be here when you want him, but right now he's right on time. Butler has 19. Heat up one. Pass over to Jokas, guarded by Caleb Martin. He drives in on him, layup good.

He got fouled by Martin. Finished anyway. Denver back in the lead by one, 88 to 87. Now we have the logo moving to Jimmy. Everybody get out of the way. Here comes Butler.

Drive pauses at the top of the arc, looking for help. Threw it away to KCP. Ball up to Murray after the foul. Jimmy slipped on the ground and he didn't fall, but you could tell he knew he needed to get the ball out of his hands. He was off balance, out of position. Foul on Lowry, his fifth.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Jason Kosmicki is the play-by-play voice on Denver Nuggets radio. Jason Jackson, former NBA player himself, and Ruth Riley, WNBA. That's the team on Miami Heat radio and it was a back and forth.

It really was a rock fight in this one. Miami had the lead most of the first half, even got up by as many as 10 briefly. Thanks to some hot shooting from Kyle Lowry, who really had the only rhythm going from beyond the arc.

Otherwise, there was nobody who was able to connect on a regular basis from three-point land. He had four in the game. Jimmy Butler had a pair. Nobody else for the Heat had more than one. And no one on the Nuggets roster had more than one except for Jamal Murray. I still can't get over how bad the three-point shooting was for the Nuggets. They made two of their first 22. They went the entire second quarter, most of the third, without a three. I made three.

They were trying them, they just weren't making them. So it was some ugly shooting at times, and yet a win is a win is a win is a clinching championship win. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Nikola Jokic ends up going 12 of 16 from the floor, 28 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists. Early on, there was a blip when he picked up his first two fouls. And still played 42 minutes. So he sat briefly in the first quarter. And Aaron Gordon already had two fouls as well, and so Mike Malone had to get creative with their roster and their rotation. So the Heat had advantage.

They were able to use it. They took a small cushion into the halftime locker room. And the third quarter, Denver pulled in front but wasn't able to beat the Heat completely. That fourth was, it was tough, it was physical.

At times you can imagine it was excruciating. These two teams were giving everything they had out there on the court. Another eight points in a row by the Heat gave them the lead with under three minutes to play. They were tied with two minutes to go. And then Miami was trailing by a point in the final 30 seconds when Jimmy Butler turned the ball over.

Kind of slipped, lost the handle, Contavious Caldwell-Pope with the steal, and then made the two free throws once he was fouled. Ultimately the Nuggets are able to hang on and grab their first championship in nearly a half century. Nikola Jokic, he says he's known the team was headed this direction since the very beginning. Since day one in San Diego, it was something different about this team. I felt it, I felt it something, something different, different energy. And every day since that day I had the same feeling. So I'm not really an optimistic guy but that gave me hope that we can do something.

I mean since day one in training camp in San Diego, we knew we could do this. So we worked for this. Was it 17 of us?

15 of us? Worked extremely hard. Every practice, every game, we stay locked in, we stay together. So I'm just extremely happy for the group. So you hear first Nikola Jokic say from the very beginning training camp San Diego, there was something special about this group.

And then Bruce Brown echoes that same sentiment. The way that these guys played together as a family, sure, maybe they didn't start out that way. But the fact that there was great chemistry on this roster, that a lot of these guys had played together, the core has been together.

They built from the inside out. That matters. And it matters to Jokic that they finally, after a few years of trying and failing, were able to win as a group, as a core. If you want to be successful, you need a couple years. You need to be bad, then you need to be good, 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 was just the organization that believed in us. Every player believed in each other.

And I think that's the most important thing. I'm not sure if you guys saw Jamal Murray with Stan Kroenke as part of the championship celebration. There's a video out there on Twitter, but it was also on TV.

I've seen it on NBA TV a couple of times here in studio. When he's hugging Mr. Kroenke and he just keeps telling him, Thank you for believing in me. Thank you, man. Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for not going a different direction.

Thank you for not giving up on me. Pretty powerful stuff as part of Jamal's emotional celebration. Just the relief and the release of all of that emotion after two years of missing the playoffs. And he wasn't the only one. There were other guys that missed time.

And Jokic talks about that. There's such a great satisfaction in doing this together, number one. But number two, it's not supposed to be easy. If it was easy, everybody would do it. No, you have to go from bad to good. Even when you're good, you got to fail first. My gosh, isn't that so similar to what we've heard from Eric Spolstra? More and more this postseason about these heat.

But I'm telling you, he could inspire people with his public speaking. 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. So Eric Spolstra's got his team into this position where maybe they weren't the... Well, forget maybe. They weren't the most talented.

They certainly weren't the biggest or the longest or the leanest. This team had to fight and scratch and claw partly because of their own offensive woes. And they really came to bear in this series.

We saw them a little bit in the Boston series toward the end. But the idea that you can be greater than the sum of your parts, it's called synergy. It's a term that's used a lot in business, corporate synergy. Chemistry for this locker room, this group gave them an advantage. And they refused to lose. The confidence even when it doesn't all go your way. And that Eric Spolstra and Jimmy Butler, Pat Riley too, continue to believe.

And continue to stick to the formula. They know their identity. They don't care what you think of them. Jimmy Butler called it the I don't give a damn factor. We are who we are.

And that's enough. 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.

We had 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, Eric Spoelstra. I love listening to him talk. Life, basketball, big picture perspective.

Because he is so right. He's part of the reason why the team knows its identity. And why every year, whether they change role players, they change a bunch of different guys on the roster. They're somehow still competitive. And he's a big part of that. So congratulations to the Heat. They fall short of becoming the first eight seed to win the NBA championship. But they have a lot to be proud of. And they gave their fans a lot to celebrate.

On Twitter, after our CBS, on our Facebook page too, named after the show. We're asking you who's the best player in the NBA. Lots of people right now would jump on the Nikola Jokic bandwagon. Not most valuable, who's the best player in terms of talent. Straight up talent in the NBA. So find us on social. And we'll continue through with more from, I can't wait for you to hear from Jamal Murray.

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New episodes come every Thursday all summer long. Follow The PBP Voices of Baseball on the Odyssey app or wherever you find your podcasts. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Here we go, difference between game and shot clock is.7 seconds. 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. In to Jimmy, top of the arc. 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. Top of the hour we will head to Denver. Not sure if you saw the videos or the still photos of the downtown area, the area around Ball Arena where the streets were filled with ecstatic euphoric Nuggets fans.

Because yes, there are some. So we will head to Denver a couple times a year. My friend Mark Kestisher who is the play-by-play voice of the NBA on ESPN radio, long-time colleague and great friend of mine, he will join us from Denver.

They always go out when the finals are done, when the season is done. A lot of hard work. And as a group, he just got back to his hotel room a couple minutes ago. So he's a night owl like me.

It's one of the reasons that we bond. And if you were watching this game on TV, you would have seen Mark. He was legit right next to the Heat bench down on the court. And so every time Eric Spolstra was on camera from across the court, Mark was right behind him.

Good perspective. You can hear a whole lot when you're sitting right next to a bench. I remember having done a bunch of games, radio play-by-play, sitting right next to the bench. We had to be careful of our microphones because the one particular coach that I worked with on a regular basis, she would use choice language and we had to be sure that the microphone wasn't picking it up. Now in ballerina, it was too loud really to hear unless somebody's right on top of you with their voice.

But could see Mark a bunch, which was fun. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. We're asking you in light of the NBA season being over and done with, who is the best player in the league? Nicole Jokic did not win the MVP for a third consecutive year. Joelle Embiid won that award. But Jokic, a unanimous winner for NBA Finals MVP, first player ever to lead the entire postseason in points, rebounds, assists. He had double-figure, double-doubles.

Double-figure, triple-doubles. And this is a guy who fills up a stat sheet to be sure, but it's not as though they are mindless points and rebounds and assists. Remember the very first game of this Finals where he had 10 assists in the first half and didn't take a shot until the second quarter. He delayed taking shots in this game too. Busy trying to get everybody involved.

Jamal Murray, critical to the Nuggets' success. And even as the court is being swarmed by family and friends, Nuggets supporters, course media, Jamal has his own little piece of real estate and he's crying his eyes out. He's got his jersey pulled up over his nose. He's got his head down.

Even as the NBA aide was trying to hand him the championship hat, he didn't look up for quite a while. And then really emotional again during the trophy ceremony. 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 the rehab, to looking back at 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 a 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. I remember, and this is fresh, right? Because it happened with Klay Thompson last season where he had missed two and a half years on the basketball court. Jamal Murray wasn't gone that long, but he did miss two post seasons. And Klay Thompson talked about the dark days when he had to fight through. Being really down in the dumps, the loneliness of rehab, the physical and emotional fallout of the two serious injuries, not being with his team, being unable to contribute, having what he loves the most being taken from him. Jamal Murray, you could see that same relief, that same emotional release as this game was over and as they're on the stage. And post game he was asked whether he ever wondered if this was possible.

Did he wonder, to the torn ACL, would he return to form and be able to win a championship? I knew I was going to suck for the first few games. I had to live with that. I knew I wasn't going to 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. I was so lost. I had never felt being that lost on the court before.

I just didn't want to go into the paint or jump or land or feel contact. 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 putting that behind. Not just me, Mike too.

I 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, even if he's not shooting well. It's just really great to see the growth of this team.

I'm so happy for Jamal Murray, same way I was for Klay Thompson last year. Jimmy Butler, we'll hear from him a bunch coming up next hour. But what stood out to him in the final two minutes of this game? Remember, they were tied with two minutes to go. Did I turn the ball over? That's what stood out. Oh, that's Jimmy Butler, right?

Take no prisoners. He had said over and over, we're going to win. Remember, he offered NBA Finals tickets to Coco Gauff before they even made the playoffs. And throughout the course of the Eastern Conference Finals, he maintained that unwavering confidence. He kept saying, I set the tone for this team. They will follow my lead. And they did.

They did. Jimmy Butler is the heart and soul of the Miami Heat. And man, the number of undrafted players. That story has been told over and over.

The number of guys that were cast-offs, really, from other franchises. Their story deserves to be celebrated. But tonight belongs to the Denver Nuggets. 94-89, Game 5 of the NBA Finals in the Mile High City. We're going to head that direction next. Our friend Marc Kestisher will join us after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Take advantage of exceptional lease and finance offers today.