NBA FINALS: HEAT VS. NUGGETS

June 12, 2023

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

Denver Nuggets

Game 5: Postgame

Nuggets 94, Heat 89.

Q. In 1976 four ABA teams merged with the league. What is the significance of the Nuggets being the second former ABA team to win an NBA championship?

KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE: It's amazing. It's been so long for the Nuggets organization to be in this position, and we knew we wanted to just come out and be the first team to ever do it.

I'm excited to even just be a part of the history that we made tonight.

Q. What's next for you? What are you going to do next after this?

KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE: What's next? Me and Bruce is going to shoot 100 jumpers in the summertime and we're going to play golf the whole summer. That's what's next for me and Bruce.

Q. You won a championship in the bubble. How does it compare tonight winning one in front of a crowd like that in Denver?

KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE: It's different. I didn't have the crowd or my family in the bubble, so it was just my brothers on the team. But here it's different because got the crowd, I had my family in the stands, was able to get my kids on the court with me after we won. Just enjoying that experience with them, I'm happy.

Q. What is the future for this Denver Nuggets now that you have one title? What can this do for this franchise moving forward? I think the core, the starting five, you guys have it locked down for the future.

KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE: I mean, everybody wants to run it back after you win. But that's up to the organization is to bring back the players or whatever it is. But this team is special. I knew it from training camp, and just been telling them all the way through training camp and the whole season, we can do this. Just believe in ourselves, in each other.