• @ickplantOPM
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    11 year ago

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    Nikola Jokic turned left out of the Nuggets’ home locker room and eased his way through a hallway en route to the players’ parking lot.

    The Nuggets had just dropped Game 2 of the NBA Finals. As it turned out, that would be their only loss of the series.

    Jokic walked at a toddler’s pace, patiently holding onto his young daughter Ognjena’s hand. Before he left, he stopped to chat with Heat forward Kevin Love, only slightly delaying his daughter’s bedtime.

    Three wins later and a championship secure, Ognjena seized the spotlight from her famous father. On the championship stage, she seemed indifferent to the chaos around her. Her biggest fascination came from the confetti and not the shiny Finals MVP trophy her dad had just won. Jokic doted and kissed her, vaulting her high above any championship won or award accrued.

    Jokic’s journey as a father has just begun, but his investment in his 1-year-old daughter’s well-being is obvious. In that way, he’s following the lead of the many fathers whose imprint on the Nuggets is undeniable. Denver’s roster is littered with examples of strong dads whose influence trickled into the locker room, one way or another. Without their guiding force, it’s unlikely the Nuggets ever would’ve been guzzling champagne and puffing cigars Monday night. In several instances, those fathers were even in on the euphoric celebration.

    When Jokic said there are things more important than basketball, there’s zero doubt he meant it. His responsibilities as a dad and husband, in his mind, are far more important than anything he’ll ever do for the Nuggets’ franchise, despite their newfound heights.

    Amid the championship afterglow, Jokic’s wife, Natalija, was trying to corral Ognjena, who was scurrying down a hallway.

    “He’s really amazing,” she said, before the emotion of the moment started to overcome her.

    “I could cry right now,” she said.

    Later, during the NBA’s celebratory photo shoot, Nikola and Natalija crouched with their adorable daughter. As if she already knew what to do, she started tapping the gold ball on top of the championship trophy. Her dribbling skills suggested a bright future ahead.

    Michael Porter Jr.

    At least four times during his postgame news conference, Michael Porter Jr. busted into his trademark smile.

    He made fun of his jump shot, which betrayed him throughout the Finals. He laughed at the money Bruce Brown could command in free agency. He smiled as an NBA official tried to remove a jumbo sized bottle of Moet from the camera frame.

    “Hey man, you can leave that there,” Porter beamed.

    Porter described his jumper as “broke” and a problem he’d fix in the offseason. But the reason he couldn’t stop grinning after helping the Nuggets win their first-ever championship?

    “I’m not even supposed to be here, to be honest with you,” Porter said. “After everything I’ve been through, I’m not really supposed to be a world champion.”

    Throughout Porter’s turbulent career, he’s always enjoyed endless support from his family. And it was no different on Monday night inside Ball Arena. There they were, Porter’s parents and siblings, in the postgame locker room, celebrating and embracing their own.

    “I’m just so proud of him, man,” Porter’s father said. “He hit adversity early on in his career, and he had adversity in this series. To have the confidence to keep playing, doing what he can do to help the team, I’m proud of him. I’m so glad for this team.”

    Despite the three back surgeries, including one that robbed him of a majority of last season, Porter’s father remained confident that a day like Monday would come.

    “I don’t know anybody that works as hard as him,” he said.

    The elder Porter, himself a coach, allowed that his son might take one day off to bask in what he and his teammates had just accomplished. But there’d be no such extended break. Porter’s said numerous times he was looking forward to the offseason since he’d finally have a healthy summer to improve his game.

    “He’s just addicted to it,” Porter Sr. said. “… To see your kid at the height of his profession achieve what he has achieved, with this team, is just incredible.”

    Jamal Murray

    The soundtrack was probably nothing Roger Murray had ever experienced in his life. It was certainly nothing he’d ever heard for his birthday.

    While Nikola’s two older brothers scoured a playlist loaded with Serbian hits, Jamal Murray’s dad clutched the Larry O’Brien trophy in his right hand. He danced and flashed a wide, toothy smile, not five feet from his son’s locker room stall.

    “This is his birthday present,” Jamal crowed.

    Roger was responsible for instilling a mental toughness in Jamal that would help him overcome every hurdle, including his greatest obstacle: rehabbing his torn ACL. Whenever Jamal cites his mental work, or his belief as a kid that a championship was inevitable, or the grueling workouts he endured in Kitchener, Ontario that got him to this point, that’s Roger he’s talking about.

    “Perseverance,” Roger said. “This is one of the goals, and we hit it, and I love it. It’s my birthday present.”

    Michael Malone

    When Michael Malone got back to his office in the bowels of the Nuggets’ locker room after the title was clinched, the first person he called was his father. The second person he called was his mother.

    When his dad, Brendan, picked up, not much was said at first.

    “I couldn’t talk for a minute,” the younger Malone said. “I was emotional and I just told him, I said, listen, ‘It’s important for you to know how much I love you.’ And we don’t throw that word around a lot in my family.”

    The younger Malone told his father, who spent close to three decades as a coach in the NBA, that he never would’ve been in this position without him. As a high school coach in New York City, college coach along the East Coast, and then a coach for several franchises in the NBA, the elder Malone tried to dissuade his son from getting into the profession. Michael followed in Brendan’s footsteps anyway.

    As it turns out, neither could shake their competitive spirit.

    In the three days before the Nuggets clinched their championship, Michael said his father texted him five times a day.

    “It wasn’t, ‘You’re a great coach, congratulations,’” Malone said. “It was, ‘This is what you got to do to win it.’”

    Malone took whatever advice his father offered and stifled Miami in five.

    “He was an assistant coach with Chuck Daly,” Malone said. “They won back to back. But this, for him to see his son be a head coach and win a world championship … he was at a loss for words. So I love my father, the best coach I’ve ever known.”