Calvin Booth, Denver Nuggets General Manager

In America, it's estimated that 4% of people in prison are actually innocent. When I saw them for the very first time, like I knew who my jury was going to be doing trial.

To be honest, I knew I lost then. In 2002, the state of Georgia found Kerry guilty for his alleged involvement in a vicious rape. Only a small percentage of those people had their convictions overturned. You know, as one great justice said many years ago, we don't find our witnesses from church pews. What series of events led to Kerry's wrongful conviction?

Could this happen to anyone? What finally convinced the courts to overturn his conviction? From Zapier, in partnership with the Georgia Innocence Project, this is the 4%.

Listen anywhere you get your podcasts or visit zapier.com forward slash resources forward slash podcasts to learn more. The week continued as the Zach Yelp Show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio on Saturday. The Nuggets on their home court did take a 1-0 series lead in the second round of the NBA playoffs up against the Phoenix Suns. Defeating Phoenix by a final score of $1.25 to $1.07.

You got Game 2 coming up tonight between those two teams at 10pm Eastern, 7pm Pacific. And now joining us is the general manager of the Denver Nuggets and that of course is Calvin Booth. Calvin, appreciate the time as always. How you been? Good, good. Thanks for having me on.

Well I appreciate you coming on. So it's such a feel good story to see what Jamal Murray is doing right now. He was sensational up against the Timberwolves and we know back in April of 2021 he unfortunately suffered that torn ACL to see him go get 34 points on Saturday to give you guys a 1-0 series lead. Just what was going through your mind when you were watching that performance? Yeah it was exciting and invigorating.

We had the gym at our jobs and it was a great one for our team. How did your relationship the last few years when a player suffers an injury like that get it even stronger? Yeah I mean it's just the rehab process is always very challenging for an athlete and for him to bounce back to what he did was just amazing. How did you guys navigate those last two years just wondering?

Well it was hard. We knew we were missing one of our emotional leaders and other producers on our team. Just wanted to give him time and space to get all the way healthy and make sure he was feeling like himself. I saw Nikola Jokic after the game said that Jamal Murray is the best player in the Nuggets and you guys are following him right now. How did you kind of process that one when a guy that's won back to back MVPs is saying that about his teammate?

Yeah I mean that's Nikola in a nutshell. He roots for other people to do well and that's why he plays the game the way he does. He moves the ball, he provides opportunities for guys like Jamal. He acknowledges when Jamal is playing at his very best. Do you think Jamal Murray right now is your guys' best player?

Because a lot of people get to see that quote that goes, oh that's just Nikola Jokic being knighted, it's still the Joker. I mean look when you talk about our best score and our toughest one-on-one matchup and the guy that probably puts the most fear in the other team, I think you absolutely have to talk about Jamal Murray. But obviously we talk about all around controlling the game and dictating the pace and tempo of the game. I think Nikola is absolutely the best. Nuggets GM Calvin Booth here with us.

Game 2 coming up at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific. When you look at Jamal and you know him as well as anybody behind the scenes, in these moments, and we saw it a few years ago, him take his game to that next level, why is he able to do that? I think honestly he was built for it. Him and his dad, they trained for this stuff from a young age.

I've seen numerous stories and I've heard some from him himself and his dad. But going outside and shooting free throw after free throw, if he missed he has to run whatever it may be. I just think the mental toughness that he built with his training regimen growing up and the ability to center himself and stay focused for long periods of time was something that he worked out very hard for me on the page. You guys were able to take a 1-0 series lead. We'll see what happens tonight. What type of effort do you expect from the opposition in Phoenix? They have Hall of Famers over there, so they're going to step up to the challenge and we're going to get their best punch, but hopefully we're able to handle it. Do you view this season as championship or bust, just wondering, for the Nuggets?

No man, I think Giannis nailed it on the head last week when he made his very impactful comments about the process and going forward and maybe it not working out. I think every year our team is going to be in position as long as we have these guys healthy and we're going to try our hardest to win it. If we don't, it's not bust. We're going to go for it though. We're going to give everything we got and hopefully get it. If we don't, we're going to give everything we got this year. I feel like what's good for you guys this year is clearly how we started this conversation. You have Jamal Murray back and I'm sure that gives you guys a feeling like you can win it all. Last two years, when you didn't have Jamal on the court, that had to be tough to try to just overcome that from a mental standpoint in looking at what you didn't have on the court, right?

Definitely. Also, it made everything clear as far as what we need to do to be able to compete with the best teams. Obviously, the last couple of seasons when Jamal was out, Nicole had to carry a Herculean load.

I think seeing how that impacted his energy level over the course of the season and how the defense compared for him made it easier to see what we need to do to improve our team. On the way out with Calvin Booth, I know the MVP award is going to be announced tomorrow. Are you past Karen about the MVP? I know Nicole Yokich won it the last two years. It'd be awesome if you could win it three straight years in a row. But it seems like the conversation for the MVP this year just got to a level that was absolutely ridiculous.

That's just the nature of the beast. A lot of good stories came out of this MVP conversation. I do hope that Nicole wins the award. I think he does deserve it. I know if he doesn't get it, it won't bother him that much. But he'll be really focused to try to win the whole thing.

If you had to make a case for the Joker to go back to back to back, what would the case be since you are the GM of the Nuggets? Arguably, this is the best season he's had out of the three years that the MVP has been in the conversation. The irony in the whole thing is that he probably won't get it this year. I think everybody will be a bit surprised if he does get it, which is crazy based on the impact he's had on winning his overall stat line.

But I just think that the way he plays every single night, the numbers he puts up, is just deserving of the MVP award. Calvin Booth, we know that arena that you guys play in, ball arena is going to be jumping tonight. If no one's ever made it out there to Denver, Colorado for a game, what's the atmosphere like? You play in multiple venues during your time as a player, then seeing it from a different side now as the general manager. I think it's an intimidating environment for the opponent.

You have the altitude to deal with. Our fans are very excited and energized by our team, which adds to the volume and ability. I think when you have guys like Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Michael Porter Jr., and even Nicole, all these guys, Christian Brown, KCP, Bruce Brown making exciting plays, like Jeff Green, one of the best dunks of the year. I think we have an exciting team.

When those plays happen, our building erupts. Well, good luck tonight. We appreciate the time. Thanks so much for doing this. Thank you. Thanks for having me on.