NEW YORK, United States of America – The Denver Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat 94-89 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals and were Monday night crowned the 2023 NBA champions, winning the best-of-seven series 4-1.
Jokic, the first player in history to lead the league in points (600), rebounds (269) and assists (190) in a single postseason – bailed out his teammates with 28 points and 16 rebounds in a frantic Game 5 finale in front of the 19,537 raucous fans filling the Ball Arena.
The performance landed The Serbian international the Bill Russell trophy as the NBA Finals MVP
As a two-time regular-season MVP and now champion, Jokić joins a heady list of basketball greats that includes only Bob Pettit, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
“It was an amazing effort by the team,” Jokic said on a postgame broadcast, visibly excited as ever. “It was an ugly game; we couldn’t make shots. But at the end we figured out how to defend. That’s why we won the game.”
Denver fans took to the social media to celebrate their historic victory as viral footage of downtown Denver showed hordes of fans gathered and cheering uncontrollably – with fireworks exploding outside Arena at the final buzzer.
Meanwhile, former President Barack Obama was among hordes of global dignitaries to publicly congradulate Denver Nuggets with a sweet Twitter message as seen below:
