Speaker 1: Welcome to this League Uncut in the rule of twenty
Speaker 1: four hour NBA News.
Speaker 2: This you lo.
Speaker 1: Chris Hans. It's time, works time, it's some time. This
Speaker 1: League Uncut is underway in on fire.
Speaker 3: This should be a good one.
Speaker 4: Welcome friends back again with another edition of This League Uncut.
Speaker 4: We are recording on the eve of the twenty twenty
Speaker 4: two to twenty three NBA Finals and honored to have
Speaker 4: a Finals participant with us, not exactly an on the
Speaker 4: court participant, but a key figure in helping the Denver
Speaker 4: Nuggets reach the NBA Finals for the first time in
Speaker 4: their NBA history. It is their GM general manager, Calvin Booth,
Speaker 4: who I once covered as a player many many years ago. Calvin,
Speaker 4: Welcome to the show, Chris, and excited to have you
Speaker 4: here in Congrats on an NBA Finals appearance. You've had
Speaker 4: several days to think about it, but I'm guessing it
Speaker 4: still has to be surreal here on some level.
Speaker 2: First of all, thanks for having me on. I'm excited
Speaker 2: to be on as well. And yes, of course it's
Speaker 2: still settling in and I think it'll be surreal for
Speaker 2: a while.
Speaker 4: So I'm sure you've seen the stat This is Pat
Speaker 4: Riley's nineteenth NBA Finals as a player, coach or executive.
Speaker 4: How are you going to neutralize Pat Riley in the
Speaker 4: GM matchup in this in this series?
Speaker 2: Well, I think that one's uh. I think pat one
Speaker 2: was that one going away. I'm really try to fight
Speaker 2: that bat well hopefully because before it can get it done.
Speaker 5: Ce b and Stein introducing you talking about used to
Speaker 5: cover you, it was it was a lot of minis.
Speaker 5: There was a lot of minis you threw out there
Speaker 5: talking about many many, many many years ago.
Speaker 6: Man, when you when.
Speaker 5: You look back at your career, does it seem like
Speaker 5: it was that long ago? Man?
Speaker 2: I think he exaggerated a little bit.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: He tried to act like and I was like back
Speaker 2: in like when you know, world be free in those guys.
Speaker 3: It's because I feel that old.
Speaker 4: I wasn't really referring to you now.
Speaker 2: See.
Speaker 5: I want to look first of all, I think congratulations,
Speaker 5: Like Stein said, Man, what you've done in the first
Speaker 5: year being the lead executive for the Denver Nuggets. You
Speaker 5: did a lot, and I want to break down some
Speaker 5: of the moves you made. But when Tim Conley left
Speaker 5: to take the Timberwolves job, what was the objective. What
Speaker 5: was the directive from ownership? What did they tell you
Speaker 5: that they wanted you to do. I'm talking about not overall,
Speaker 5: but in this first year coming up, Like, what was
Speaker 5: the objective?
Speaker 2: Well, Chris Man, I don't, honestly, I don't think there
Speaker 2: was time for that. Like, you know, everything was kind
Speaker 2: of abrupt, and the transition was very quick, and I
Speaker 2: kind of took the bull by the proverbial horns. You know,
Speaker 2: Josh is busy managing the Arsenal and you know, dealing
Speaker 2: with the Rams and you know the many many sports
Speaker 2: franchise they have, and obviously it drew his attention a
Speaker 2: big time when you know, Tim's transition was happening. But
Speaker 2: like you know, those first first week or so, I
Speaker 2: just started reaching out to players and started to like,
Speaker 2: you know, prepare for the draft and uh prepared as
Speaker 2: if you know, like the job was going to be mine.
Speaker 2: But there was no I don't think there was any
Speaker 2: determination at that point. I think there was eventually a
Speaker 2: press conference where Josh gave me a vote of confidence
Speaker 2: or whatever, but it was just basically to work. You know,
Speaker 2: you know, from our experience of playing in the playoffs
Speaker 2: that previous year, is just a bunch of conclusions that
Speaker 2: I had drawn by watching that series that what we
Speaker 2: need to do going forward, and that's how I acted.
Speaker 5: So when you when you talk about you went just
Speaker 5: straight to work, was there anxiety from your standpoint as
Speaker 5: far as just not knowing, like, Okay, what is going
Speaker 5: to be my role in the short term? How were
Speaker 5: you able to process that and still do your job?
Speaker 2: No, I mean I wasn't thinking about that. It was
Speaker 2: too much more on to think about that. I was
Speaker 2: just worried about doing a job to best my ability
Speaker 2: and showing that I could handle the responsibility as the job.
Speaker 2: So no real anxiety on my end. I mean, I've
Speaker 2: been playing. It's not like I have to hit a
Speaker 2: corner three late in the game, but the shot clock
Speaker 2: run down or whatever. It's just it's just like you know, organizing,
Speaker 2: getting prepping for the draft, and pitching your ideas of ownership.
Speaker 3: Alvin.
Speaker 4: You know Chris knows this because whenever your name comes up,
Speaker 4: I love to bring up the story that I was
Speaker 4: there on press row for what I think is the
Speaker 4: highlight of your playing career when you made the layup
Speaker 4: to send the Dallas Mavericks. You clinched a game five
Speaker 4: win in Utah two thousand and one. The MAVs at
Speaker 4: that point had not won a playoff series for more
Speaker 4: than a decade, and in those days, five game first
Speaker 4: round series teams didn't win a deciding game. In Utah,
Speaker 4: Mas were down huge going into the fourth quarter. I
Speaker 4: always call that shot the thirty four million dollars layup
Speaker 4: because you signed that big deal with Seattle in the
Speaker 4: following off season. Compare that feeling of what it felt
Speaker 4: like to make such a big basket and such a
Speaker 4: memorable basket in maps history too, being in the stands
Speaker 4: and watching your team clinch a spot in the NBA Finals.
Speaker 3: As the guy who runs the front office.
Speaker 2: I think you're a comparable one that you know. It
Speaker 2: was on the forefront of a new air or so
Speaker 2: to speak. I know Mark had just taken over Dallas
Speaker 2: and the previous previous year or two, and it made
Speaker 2: a lot of innovations and tried to make it really
Speaker 2: exciting around there and to actually see something that payoff
Speaker 2: and get a first playoff series win eventually lead to
Speaker 2: them getting in the finals a few years later and
Speaker 2: then eventually win a championship like that. That was very
Speaker 2: exciting and also I feel like the same here. I
Speaker 2: felt like, you know, playing an integral role and trying
Speaker 2: to be a steward of this team and putting the
Speaker 2: team together that can make the finals, potentially win the finals,
Speaker 2: and then what's on the horizon, you know, once the
Speaker 2: season is over is an exciting thought.
Speaker 6: I want to bring up the offseason.
Speaker 5: Last off season, as you said, you were really busy
Speaker 5: off season their draft. Then it's the summer. First priority
Speaker 5: is signing getting a Joker to that extension, and after
Speaker 5: that there are some pieces that you brought to a
Speaker 5: table that are very very effective pieces this season.
Speaker 6: But take me through the Joker process. What was that
Speaker 6: process like?
Speaker 5: Did you have to convince him at all? You know,
Speaker 5: because there was a new direction going on here with
Speaker 5: the of the Nuggets and you guys feel short prior.
Speaker 5: Were there any convincing or was it just an easy process.
Speaker 5: You went out there, you got them, Like you just
Speaker 5: walked me through the Joker process real quick.
Speaker 2: I think Joker is a very patient person. I think,
Speaker 2: you know, from my end, I did feel that there
Speaker 2: need to be some reassurances that we're going to be
Speaker 2: heading in the right direction. You know, with Joker in
Speaker 2: a circle, I felt like, you know, meeting with his
Speaker 2: brothers out here, talking to Excel, talking to him. I
Speaker 2: think what's important, and I, you know, obviously getting the
Speaker 2: deal completed, because anytime you can get a god of
Speaker 2: that magnitude to sign on the dotted line, it's a big.
Speaker 5: Deal, especially you being you know again you're a few
Speaker 5: months in or as the head exec at that point.
Speaker 5: And then from there, how do you build around Joker
Speaker 5: now because you're trying to change the trajectory of the team.
Speaker 5: You're trying to get them to the point where you
Speaker 5: guys are now. And then you made some moves. You
Speaker 5: acquire Cantavi, it is Kywell Pope from Washington, trade away
Speaker 5: Will Barton who's.
Speaker 6: Been there for years. You brought on Bruce Brown, and
Speaker 6: really he.
Speaker 5: Took it to another level we didn't see, especially on
Speaker 5: the offensive, and we didn't see this in years prior.
Speaker 5: Just tell me, like, once you got Joker, what was
Speaker 5: in your mind as far as okay, what we need
Speaker 5: to do to bring the right talent on the cast
Speaker 5: to make sure we get to a level that we
Speaker 5: haven't been before.
Speaker 6: How did you do that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean I'm just big into studying past patterns
Speaker 2: of champions and the air I grew up in and
Speaker 2: played in another I've watched the Bulls teams and the
Speaker 2: Lakers teams and played against them plenty of times. So
Speaker 2: the prevalain thought always, like, did joke and say that
Speaker 2: jokers just a walking triangle offense. So just trying to
Speaker 2: get that kind of person out around them, Guys that
Speaker 2: have positional size or smart hopefully at least average defensively,
Speaker 2: best case a little bit above the line defensively. And
Speaker 2: you know, I mean you have a basically a seven
Speaker 2: foot point guard that complain anywhere in the court, and
Speaker 2: so just getting versatile guys to go around a guy
Speaker 2: that can make shots and guard. I thought what was important.
Speaker 4: You obviously played with Dirk, so there have been you know,
Speaker 4: sometimes Dirk gets mentioned in, but I think it's more
Speaker 4: like Jokic more often. You hear that he's, you know,
Speaker 4: a seven foot, two hundred and fifty plus pound Larry Bird.
Speaker 4: From your seat, Who is he most like when we
Speaker 4: try to compare him to something we've seen in the past.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's some kind of matching up a Bird,
Speaker 2: Dirk and Duncan. I mean, obviously doesn't have the the
Speaker 2: rim protection and stuff that Duncan have, but like I
Speaker 2: see a lot of Duncan like qualities in him. C B.
Speaker 5: When you look at overall with the different Nuggets have
Speaker 5: you know, people, the narrative is being that everybody's been
Speaker 5: sleeping on the Nuggets and you guys have just been
Speaker 5: winning all throughout the year. Mike Blow has some really
Speaker 5: you know, interesting confidence through the course of the playoffs
Speaker 5: about respecting this team, and so you're not in the trenches.
Speaker 5: But I want to know, just from your seat, did
Speaker 5: you feel like that as well? Did you feel like
Speaker 5: the Nuggets were after thought to everybody else where we
Speaker 5: dismissing or disrespecting or is it a combination of other factors?
Speaker 6: Like what are your thoughts behind the narrative of the
Speaker 6: Nuggets being slept on?
Speaker 2: Now? I think it's a two sided coin, man. I
Speaker 2: think like on one side of it, it's like you
Speaker 2: have to earn respect and you have to win that
Speaker 2: first title. You have to make it to the point
Speaker 2: we're at right now. And I feel like, you know,
Speaker 2: Goolden State did that at one point in time, right
Speaker 2: you know, people probably wondered that a twenty eight game
Speaker 2: winning streak in the regular season, then people still weren't
Speaker 2: sure whether a bit or not. And then next thing,
Speaker 2: you know, they want to tie it on like, oh man,
Speaker 2: win the title, and then obviously everybody knows what happened
Speaker 2: after that. So I think getting here and earning the
Speaker 2: respect by our actions and by getting some results as
Speaker 2: part of the process. But I do think, like, you know, honestly,
Speaker 2: like I think coaches are very colorful, and he likes to,
Speaker 2: like you know, say Mark say say things that are
Speaker 2: catch grab attention, you know. So I do think there's
Speaker 2: a little bit of that. But but the one thing
Speaker 2: I will support him on is is that like when
Speaker 2: you look at what our team did throughout the year
Speaker 2: and you compare it to the lack of you know,
Speaker 2: accolade so to speak, that our team got, it does
Speaker 2: seem disproportionately out of whack, you know, Like all right,
Speaker 2: as Joker, if he's not the m v P, right,
Speaker 2: if he's a second team All NBA guy and he's
Speaker 2: not the MVP, then shouldn't Aaron Gordon or Jamal or
Speaker 2: somebody made an All Star game? Like should Casey p r?
Speaker 2: Aaron got more push for All Defense, should our coach
Speaker 2: got a Coach of the Year, Like, it is a
Speaker 2: little interesting that we actually got no recognition through the
Speaker 2: awards process for the kind of season we had, which
Speaker 2: is I mean, obviously Joker made second Team All NBA
Speaker 2: and was up there in the MVP voting, but like,
Speaker 2: outside of that, pretty much nothing.
Speaker 5: And you think about it, usually the protocol not protocol,
Speaker 5: but it's like it's an established protocol over the years
Speaker 5: that if a team has the number one seed going
Speaker 5: to the break, typically they get multiple All Star players
Speaker 5: from the same team in that game.
Speaker 6: And it was just Joker.
Speaker 5: You know, there was a case made, was is it
Speaker 5: Aaron Gordon Jamaal Murray?
Speaker 6: So I guess you felt that way as well at
Speaker 6: that time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, I felt like both of those guys deserved
Speaker 2: and obviously we weren't going to get three All Stars,
Speaker 2: but I would have been thrilled if either one of
Speaker 2: those guys would have gotten into the game. And I
Speaker 2: know Aaron was playing out of his mind thought up
Speaker 2: until that point it was comparable or maybe even better
Speaker 2: than what Andrew Wiggins had done the year before, and
Speaker 2: he made the All Star Game, So you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: obviously have Nuggets colored glasses on in that one. It's
Speaker 2: always there's so many good players in the league. It
Speaker 2: was such a great year of performances that the these
Speaker 2: award things are hard, but like but the kind I
Speaker 2: always thought with great teams success, you know, the individual
Speaker 2: accolades came after that and didn't necessarily happen this year
Speaker 2: for our team, which is fine.
Speaker 3: So I'll be honest.
Speaker 4: I was a pretty staunch Nuggets advocate for the bulk
Speaker 4: of the year. I thought the fact that you guys
Speaker 4: had continuity so many teams in the West did not.
Speaker 4: I thought that was a real advantage for you. But
Speaker 4: then there was the seven and ten finish, and it
Speaker 4: just it wasn't. You guys were leading the West forever.
Speaker 4: It was clear you were going to be the number
Speaker 4: one seed. But I guess in the regular season the
Speaker 4: Nuggets didn't run through the proverbial tape, maybe.
Speaker 3: As convincingly as it could have been.
Speaker 4: How concerned were you during that seven and ten finish
Speaker 4: to the regular season that something had gone off track?
Speaker 2: Honestly, I probably would have been more concerned if we
Speaker 2: looked like the two thousand and six Spurs or something
Speaker 2: like that. And we were eighteen OL because that hadn't
Speaker 2: been who we had been. We had been a team
Speaker 2: that would eb and flow, and sometimes we play well
Speaker 2: and sometimes we didn't play well. And we obviously got
Speaker 2: bored at the end of the season and weren't playing
Speaker 2: our highest level basketball in it. But I didn't I've
Speaker 2: never really doubted that when it came time to step
Speaker 2: up in the playoffs, so we would do that. So,
Speaker 2: I mean, Contavious had a rough end of the season,
Speaker 2: but I think historically if you look at his numbers,
Speaker 2: he always does that and then bounce back and start
Speaker 2: making shots, and then in the playoffs, I think I
Speaker 2: wasn't as concerned as uh as everybody else was in
Speaker 2: the outside of our locker room and organization.
Speaker 4: I mean, there was so much talk in the second
Speaker 4: half of the season that these playoffs are going to
Speaker 4: be a referendum on the Joker his two MVPs, even
Speaker 4: though the MVP is a regular season awards, Like why
Speaker 4: are we even going there? But he seems completely unbothered
Speaker 4: by this supposed pressure that these playoffs carried. What do
Speaker 4: you see, I mean, how much is he even listening
Speaker 4: to us?
Speaker 2: Well? I think he typically tries to block all of
Speaker 2: it out, but this year was just kind of like unavoidable,
Speaker 2: especially after a regular season game in Pelly and you know,
Speaker 2: and then the racing came into it, and I think
Speaker 2: it was just I think it was a little bit
Speaker 2: of a distraction for our team and probably a little bit,
Speaker 2: you know, I took a little bit of a positive
Speaker 2: energy and mojo away from our team just having to
Speaker 2: deal with that whole narrative.
Speaker 3: Hmm.
Speaker 6: Okay, that's a interesting ce B.
Speaker 5: When you look at the landscape of the league, how
Speaker 5: teams are built. If you look at the Nuggets, it's
Speaker 5: a pretty well rounded team from from top to bottom.
Speaker 5: You know, you guys are pretty sturdy there. You know,
Speaker 5: it used to be well, I would say for a
Speaker 5: period there, teams would try to go after two superstars,
Speaker 5: sometimes three, and on occasion we had one where where
Speaker 5: you have four. But what what do you what do
Speaker 5: you think the league is headed towards? You know that
Speaker 5: with the new CVA that is coming in, it's like
Speaker 5: it's going to make it harder to have that many
Speaker 5: type of players on the team.
Speaker 6: But what what is the ideal when you.
Speaker 5: Talk to other executives out there or even just from
Speaker 5: your perspective, what's the ideal way to build a team?
Speaker 6: Is it even efficient? Is it even worth.
Speaker 5: It to go after multiple superstars at one time? What's
Speaker 5: your what's your take?
Speaker 2: I just think this is kind of a pop out,
Speaker 2: But I don't think there's one singular answer. It depends
Speaker 2: on where the team is at the development art, depends
Speaker 2: on who your superstar is. I mean our case, we
Speaker 2: have we have stars. We have Michael Porter Jr. This is, like,
Speaker 2: you know, the best player in this class for the
Speaker 2: longest time. He's had a lot of injuries and stuff,
Speaker 2: and we paid them with max contract and I felt
Speaker 2: like he's played up to that this year. I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously I have Jamal and Joker. I think the thing
Speaker 2: is it's just that our best players are easy to
Speaker 2: play with and they have well rounded games, so it's
Speaker 2: it's easy to like identify guys that will fit with them,
Speaker 2: and there's a lot of kind of guys that can
Speaker 2: fit with them. So I think that's why our team
Speaker 2: seems like it's so seamless in that way. The credit
Speaker 2: to Joker, Jamal, I mean the job Malone does everybody
Speaker 2: in at S thirty five, which I think is the
Speaker 2: best starty five in basketball.
Speaker 4: I can't resist asking this because I'm just curious, like,
Speaker 4: how often in a staff meeting will you guys all
Speaker 4: just look at each other and say you believe that
Speaker 4: Yokid slipped all the way to number forty one in
Speaker 4: the draft, Like, obviously that's not new news. Obviously his
Speaker 4: career arc has been well chronicled at this point. But
Speaker 4: I just whenever I hear that number, I still can't
Speaker 4: get over it. Forty first pick in the draft to
Speaker 4: two time MVP and.
Speaker 5: Style hold up before CB answer that I saw on
Speaker 5: social media a few days ago that when Joker was
Speaker 5: actually selected, it was it was during commercial break, so.
Speaker 6: You didn't really get to see Joker. There's day call,
Speaker 6: but go ahead and see me. Go ahead.
Speaker 2: No, I mean, I think for me, it's all going
Speaker 2: back to the Hoops summit and I was there a
Speaker 2: much a lot of executives, and he was doing all
Speaker 2: the same stuff he's doing now, and I felt like
Speaker 2: it was kind of like a funny. It was kind
Speaker 2: of like a joke. Oh man, like, look he's kind
Speaker 2: of doing it or whatever. And I'm always remember like
Speaker 2: I felt like I think Capella was in that Hoops Summit,
Speaker 2: and I know coming into he was supposed to be
Speaker 2: like a lottery picking. Uh. You know, his stock dropped
Speaker 2: a little bit because of you know what happened to
Speaker 2: Hoops Summit. But like looking back on it's like, really
Speaker 2: no shame in being outplayed by Nicola yelpis right, like,
Speaker 2: but nobody you know, well, obviously the guys in Denver
Speaker 2: valued him and they got him to stay in the drivet.
Speaker 2: But like to your point, Mark, nobody like said, oh man,
Speaker 2: I believe in this coast to coast layup or you know,
Speaker 2: him throwing this crazy past there's three point shot so
Speaker 2: much so that I think he's a first rounder, right,
Speaker 2: you know, very few people had that kind of foresight.
Speaker 5: Give me your initial thoughts now that he's in the
Speaker 5: league and now that you're deal with the Nuggets, your
Speaker 5: initial thought on his ceiling at this time, because we
Speaker 5: knew he was solid, but to see him become.
Speaker 6: This player, I don't. I could definitely couldn't say I
Speaker 6: saw it.
Speaker 2: It's kind of interesting, man, because I you know, came
Speaker 2: from Minnesota and thought the world of Andrew Wiggins and
Speaker 2: Carltown's upside. I thought those guys were really talented, We're
Speaker 2: going to do great things in the league. But like
Speaker 2: having said that, watching one open gym with Joker, I
Speaker 2: was like, man, he's he's better than those guys. That
Speaker 2: was Yeah, that was that was pretty impactful to I
Speaker 2: think that because I didn't before watching him in person
Speaker 2: those couple of days, I wouldn't have thought that, like right,
Speaker 2: you know, because definitely come from the Wolves and having
Speaker 2: a you know, the Timberwolves like glasses on, you know,
Speaker 2: think of those guys are going to be the eventual
Speaker 2: you know, duo that would do great things in the
Speaker 2: Western Conference. And seeing this guy that was in Denver,
Speaker 2: I was like, man, this guy's better than both those guys.
Speaker 2: And I think that was just starting to at the
Speaker 2: beginning of people recognizing how good Joker was.
Speaker 3: You've been at this for a while.
Speaker 4: Now, what point in your playing career did you think,
Speaker 4: you know what, when I'm done, I want to go
Speaker 4: to the front office route this is.
Speaker 3: This is being part of building teams is what I
Speaker 3: want to do.
Speaker 2: I mean I became interested. I think, you know, as
Speaker 2: a player, when when you the processes, when you come
Speaker 2: out of college, you start watching college a lot. The
Speaker 2: first year, maybe even to the second year, because you
Speaker 2: still know a lot of guys. But then you get
Speaker 2: to that point in career where you watch NBA basketball
Speaker 2: you're playing it or you're price, and you kind of
Speaker 2: get away from it. And so I han't said that
Speaker 2: around the two thousand and eight draft. You know, I
Speaker 2: think I was playing in two thousand and seven eight.
Speaker 2: I was actually in Washington, I believe, so no or
Speaker 2: I could have been enough Philly. I was in Philly.
Speaker 2: So I remember watching that draft and spent a lot
Speaker 2: of time scouting and her parent it was a it
Speaker 2: was a great draft to start off with. Man, there's
Speaker 2: so many great players in that draft. I wonder if
Speaker 2: I would have been as interest in scouting if I'd
Speaker 2: come in a barren draft, right, But like you know,
Speaker 2: you're watching Derrick Rose and Beasley and Rustbrook and Mayo
Speaker 2: and Kevin Love and all these guys, and you know,
Speaker 2: I just I thought it was a very fascinating thing
Speaker 2: to try to figure out who would translate and who would.
Speaker 5: When you think about this matchup now with the Miami
Speaker 5: Heat and everybody, I can say everybody, but for the
Speaker 5: most part, you guys are considered the favorites, but also
Speaker 5: you've been you had a lot of downtime, and you're
Speaker 5: going into this series against the Heat.
Speaker 6: What is the concern?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean the Miami Heat and the culture and
Speaker 2: what they built, what they're created, and the players they
Speaker 2: have over there, the coach they have over there, and
Speaker 2: the belief they have in themselves. You have to respect that, right.
Speaker 2: If you don't have the proper amount of respect for that,
Speaker 2: then they're probably in a bad way.
Speaker 4: I think we're contractually obligated to bring up rest versus rust,
Speaker 4: or else they're going to take away our credentials because obviously,
Speaker 4: you guys, it's been it will have been nine full
Speaker 4: days without a playoff game by the time Game one
Speaker 4: tips off Thursday night. What's been the approach in house
Speaker 4: for you guys dealing with such a such an extended break.
Speaker 2: And I think the coaches and players done a fantastic
Speaker 2: job of like picking the spots when to work and
Speaker 2: when to take breaks, and trying to do the best
Speaker 2: you can to stay ready and and rested headed into
Speaker 2: tomorrow's game.
Speaker 4: What's your game watching routine? How hard is it for
Speaker 4: you to just having played? How hard is it for
Speaker 4: you to just sit there and watch.
Speaker 2: It's not hard at all. I think, like, you know,
Speaker 2: when the game, when the series get tight and stuff
Speaker 2: like that, it becomes a lot harder. I like, I
Speaker 2: remember being in the bubble and uh, you know, the
Speaker 2: playoffs started. We're playing Utah in the first couple of
Speaker 2: you know, the first couple of games, and so I'm like,
Speaker 2: oh man, this is about to be in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: It's like no, no, no energy or tension or anything
Speaker 2: in here. And then by the time it was game seven,
Speaker 2: it might as well have been like one hundred thousand
Speaker 2: people on that and that empty, empty arena in Orlando.
Speaker 2: So I think, you know, when when this theory gets tighter,
Speaker 2: and you know, the end of games and fourth quarters,
Speaker 2: especially if the closer you come to approaching the end
Speaker 2: of the season series or conclusion of it, and that's
Speaker 2: when the most tension of pressure comes. But other than that,
Speaker 2: I think it's pretty It's just I try to enjoy
Speaker 2: throughout the game and watch it.
Speaker 5: And my last thing, see, I want to ask you
Speaker 5: about your own personal goals.
Speaker 6: We talked about your team and how.
Speaker 5: They some of them may feel slided by the lack
Speaker 5: of awards recognition, but I brought up what you did
Speaker 5: in that short timeframe this past year for a reason.
Speaker 5: I think you definitely should be up there when you're
Speaker 5: talking about Executive of the Year awards. I know you don't,
Speaker 5: you know, probably don't want to get too much into it,
Speaker 5: but man, just looking at everything you've done, you made
Speaker 5: a trade.
Speaker 6: You made a trade as well too.
Speaker 2: You know, the.
Speaker 5: Nuggets had some adversity as well. But everything you've done,
Speaker 5: you righted the ship and you put pieces together and
Speaker 5: they fit and I don't think the Nuggets have gotten
Speaker 5: a lot of recognition from that standpoint. So is that
Speaker 5: something like when you're talking about your peers in the game,
Speaker 5: it's called the general manager, the president of basketball operations
Speaker 5: in this lead the personnel. Do you look at that
Speaker 5: and say, like, man, I want to be mentioned amongst
Speaker 5: the top, especially this year.
Speaker 6: Is that something that you gravitate towards.
Speaker 2: I mean, you've seen some of the guys that have been
Speaker 2: around for a long time, you know, and had a
Speaker 2: lot of success, and I think you know, following your
Speaker 2: path and having having a career and having sustability and
Speaker 2: having your the organization proven you're under your watch, it's
Speaker 2: much more important than mean than an award, if I'm correct,
Speaker 2: I don't think Sam Presty's ever won that award, Like
Speaker 2: you know, He's definitely been an Executive of the Year before, right,
Speaker 2: and so I don't I don't put a lot of
Speaker 2: stock in that in that particular award. You know, I'll
Speaker 2: give a lot to have Sam's career at this point.
Speaker 2: You know, I think he's had a great career in
Speaker 2: the business, and so if he hasn't had awards, who
Speaker 2: am out to win the award? Right? You know That's
Speaker 2: why I kind of look at it.
Speaker 5: Well, I'm not gonna say that's a cop out, but
Speaker 5: I get your point. You definitely deserve you definitely deserve
Speaker 5: to get your recognition, brother, And I wanted to make
Speaker 5: sure we you know, glad you came on, agreed to
Speaker 5: come on because I wanted to definitely highlight what you've
Speaker 5: done behind the scenes and putting together a roster that
Speaker 5: you know, this is championship building right here. And I
Speaker 5: know it's not somebody's out on the door, but I
Speaker 5: know I know that the road is not done.
Speaker 6: You still got you get the Miami Heat coming up.
Speaker 6: So but h c B.
Speaker 5: I appreciate you taking the time, brother, best of luck
Speaker 5: unto you and the rest of the way, and I'll
Speaker 5: see you down there at some point during the final.
Speaker 5: I'll definitely see you in Miami on South Beacht.
Speaker 4: Yes, sir our, thanks to Calvin Booth for joining us
Speaker 4: on the eve of the NBA Finals. That will do
Speaker 4: it for this edition of this League, Uncut, Chris and
Speaker 4: I back soon with more on the finals, more on
Speaker 4: the coaching carousel, more on everything else happening around this league.
Speaker 4: As always, please until next time, rate review and subscribe
Speaker 4: to the show on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get
Speaker 4: your pods.
Speaker 1: Talk soon, everybody, and that'll do it for us. See
Speaker 1: you next time. This League on Cutage and iHeartRadio Production
Speaker 1: Christines and Mark Stein