{"id":646588,"date":"2026-03-08T05:48:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T05:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/646588\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T05:48:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T05:48:30","slug":"christian-braun-recalled-a-moment-he-knew-denver-would-win-it-all-in-2023-my-friends-are-standing-up-clapping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/646588\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Braun recalled a moment he knew Denver would win it all in 2023: “My friends are standing up clapping”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many great generations had to pass through the Denver Nuggets<\/a> locker room before the franchise finally went all the way to win the Larry O’Brien trophy in 2023, led by the heroic performances from Nikola Jokic<\/a> and Jamal Murray.<\/p>\n

From the days of Dan Issel and Fat Lever, to David Thompson and Alex English, through Dikembe Mutombo, Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson, many outstanding generations tried and tried, but always fell short along the way.<\/p>\n

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However, 2023 was the culmination of an organically built team through smart draft picks and one of the players who contributed to the franchise’s first title, Christian Braun<\/a>, reflected on the series against the Miami Heat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“No disrespect to that team obviously, they made it to the Finals and that’s not easy. Jimmy went on a crazy run, but whenever they beat Boston, everybody on our team was like, ‘Alright, we have a really, really good chance to win,'” Braun said<\/a> on “The Old Man and the Three” podcast.<\/p>\n

“I remember where I was at whenever they won the game. I was in Del Frisco with my family, we were eating. They win the game, we’re in this little back room and even my friends are standing up clapping,” Braun added.<\/p>\n

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Denver cruised to the Finals with ease<\/p>\n

Braun, who had won an NCAA title with Kansas just a season prior, experienced the thrill of an NBA title as a rookie. Alongside Braun, Jokic and Murray, the roster included the players whom they drafted, such as Michael Porter Jr.<\/a>. Peyton Watson, Zeke Nnaji, Vlatko Cancar and head coach Michael Malone<\/a>, who had been building the team since 2015.<\/p>\n

Aaron Gordon and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were also key cogs in their championship runs, whom they added throughout smart trades.<\/p>\n

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Braun, now a legitimate NBA starter on a five-year, $125 million contract, was far from a star role at the time, but even he felt that nothing could stop the team on its way to the title.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets dominated the regular season, finishing first in the Western Conference and losing just three games on the way to the Finals, one to the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> and two to the Phoenix Suns<\/a>. Neither Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns nor Kevin Durant and Devin Booker had answers for Malone’s squad.<\/p>\n

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The series against the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> barely needs mention, as Denver swept them in the Western Conference finals, leaving LeBron James and Anthony Davis empty-handed.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Heat fought through the Play-In to reach the playoffs and shocked the world by eliminating the Milwaukee Bucks 4\u20131. How good they truly were was best confirmed after they defeated the New York Knicks by 4-2. Everything was set for the Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics<\/a>, and few expected the Heat to have much of a chance.<\/p>\n

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Miami led the series 3\u20130 early on, with many believing it could mark the end of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown together in Boston. But the Celtics forced a Game 7, which the Heat lost 103\u201384 behind a fantastic Jimmy Butler<\/a> performance, who deservedly won the ECF MVP of that series.<\/p>\n

Related: Mike Dunleavy says he didn’t see Jonathan Kuminga balling in Atlanta: “We’ve been really busy with stuff here”<\/a><\/p>\n

The NBA Finals were one-way street for the Nuggets<\/p>\n

The Finals themselves started tightly, tied 1\u20131, but everything afterward was brutal dominance from Jokic and Murray<\/a>, who became the first teammates in NBA history, regular season or playoffs, to record 30-point triple-doubles in the same game.<\/p>\n

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Jokic ultimately won Finals MVP, completely deservingly, as the Heat appeared exhausted from the battles they had fought and simply could not match a team that had been steadily built since 2015, when the Serbian center was drafted and the foundation for years of success was laid.<\/p>\n

It’s worth noting that on their way to the title, Denver never faced a team with more than 50 wins, which is part of why many observers see their path to the championship as comparatively smooth.<\/p>\n

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Related: “His work ethic is on a whole different planet” – Christian Braun explains why Nikola Jokic is one of the league’s deadliest superstars<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Mar 8, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many great generations had to pass through the Denver Nuggets locker room before the franchise finally went all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[877,4284,6170,83865,495,375,7,75,3628,561,44714,30150,301,187,3943,2292,614,762,78,77,313,563,865,938,185,150,189,4231,121,152,6,191,253,302,1146,472,4714],"class_list":["post-646588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-nuggets","tag-aaron-gordon","tag-alex-english","tag-allen-iverson","tag-alongside-braun","tag-anthony-davis","tag-anthony-edwards","tag-basketball","tag-boston-celtics","tag-carmelo-anthony","tag-christian-braun","tag-dan-issel","tag-david-thompson","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-denvernuggets","tag-devin-booker","tag-dikembe-mutombo","tag-jamal-murray","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-jimmy-butler","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-kentavious-caldwell-pope","tag-kevin-durant","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-miami-heat","tag-michael-malone","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-nuggets","tag-peyton-watson","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-zeke-nnaji"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}