Denver Nuggets Owner Josh Kroenke on Drafting Nikola Jokic and Watching His Rise to MVP

Everyone laughed when Gregg Popovic said 5-6 years ago that Nikola Jokic reminded him of Larry Bird

Comparing Jokic with Bird was genius

Many many years ago, early on in Jokic playing career, Reggie Miller told Shaq,and Chuck that he was going to be better than Arvydas Sabonis. Both laughed, I laughed, guess Reggie was right.

I worked at a restaurant in 2017 and this 19 year old coworker I had told me that Jokic will be an MVP and gets us a Championship. I'll never forget that because he was always getting shit from some of the Lakers fans line cooks. He always just responded with a just wait and you'll see

Micheal Porter Jr. Is such a special individual. You saw him start with a lot of individual drive. Now he is so team focused, Nikola fan, and humble. And is 10x better individually than when he started. I love his interviews. He is such a key key piece of the epicness that is the Nuggets. Best team I’ve watched. I was obsessed with 90’s basketball but 2024 Nug’s supersede it all. I really wanna see them take out Lakers again. Tough match up.

That Larry Bird punchline hits really hard ngl. Shows u how great is Nikola Jokic

The Nuggets organization deserve a lot of credit, made all the right decisions, drafted Murray as 7th pick, Malik Beasley as 19th (was pretty good), found Jokic and decided to keep him over Nurk, took a risk with MPJ who had massive back issues and traded for AG, KCP and Bruce Brown. And now Watson, Braun and Zeke Nnaji all look really promising. They even took Bones Hyland who's very gifted as well. No superstars, no huge trades, just great decisions and perfect execution.

“He doesn’t jump out at you right away - but when you watch it over time and you understand what he’s doing and how he’s affecting the game, he jumps out at you” This was really well put

Man that story is gold what a good storyteller lol. The way he was leading up to that climax with the Nurk comparisons beforehand only to throw in "Larry Bird" was amazing

as an Arsenal fan, I started to like this man. great hat. never heard him before but you can tell his education and inteligence are off the charts. he clearly knows what he does. a very good example that he is not daddy's son. he knows what to do with that fortune.

caught me off guard when I assume that player A is Nurkic but then, it's someone that is way way way out of what we're expecting!

Player B has better per/36 stats across the board in his 2nd year Nuggets owner: "so im assuming player A is nurkic" Analytics group: "no its larry bird....." The entire room and nuggets staff: starts dancing and screaming like they won the lottery

I wasn't aware of these facts, but I wrote an article in a magazine about success of Nuggets and about Nikola and his basketball IQ, its impact on the entire team and the game. I also discussed the difficult decision to part ways with Jusuf Nurkic and Nikola's game philosophy and talent. Furthermore, I noted that the MVP titles and the Nuggets' success are well-deserved, not only by the players on the court but also by the excellent coach Mike Malone, who recognized Nikola's talent, as well as the owner and supporting team. I am pleased that this video has confirmed my assumptions about the events and their success. I hope they secure another championship ring, and I wish I could witness it firsthand. Go Nugets!

MPJ is evolving. This bit was absolute fucking fire.

Damn you really tapped in that’s crazy! Good stuff

Michael is a really good guy, respect.

That’s one down to earth owner. The Larry Bird parallel is hilarious. Sometimes good things happen to good people. Nice channel MPJ keep it up 👍

I am so glad that Jokic happened because now we know for 100% that Bird would be just as good as he was before nowdays and IMO better since the game is more suited for him today. There is even an interview of Bird where he says how big of a fan he is of Jokic and Nuggets and how they are his most fun team to watch. He would fit in that style of offense with no adjustment, you could just pluck him from 80s and put him in.

wow, what a story by Josh. Well done!

Was not expecting Larry Bird🤣🤣🤣