KU basketball’s Christian Braun takes on NBA championship parade: Sights, sounds & quotes

Wearing a sleeveless white and gold T-shirt — which read, “We came, we saw, we conquered: Denver Nuggets ‘22-23 NBA Champions” — blue sweats and a black and white “22-23 Champions” cap, Denver Nuggets rookie Christian Braun poured champagne into his mouth with his right hand and waved a commemorative WWE championship belt with his left.

The former Kansas Jayhawk and Blue Valley Northwest High guard was standing in the back of a firetruck driven down streets packed with adoring fans Thursday morning in downtown Denver.

Braun — he eventually removed his shirt and fired it from the top of the truck into the throng of spectators lining 17th Street — according to ESPN was “living his best life at the Nuggets (championship) parade.”

The former KU star came off the bench to score seven points and grab three rebounds while playing 24 minutes in the Nuggets’ Game 5 NBA Finals clinching win over the Miami Heat on Monday. Later, he basked in the joy of his second title in two seasons.

After winning three consecutive state crowns at BV Northwest, the 22-year-old Braun went on to start for KU’s 2022 NCAA championship team. He had parade experience, having driven down Lawrence’s Mass Street in a convertible a few days after KU won it all in 2021-22.

“The rookie firetruck has been amazing to be on. Christian Braun and Peyton Watson have been the absolute stars of this thing,” a reporter from 9 news NBC in Denver said Thursday in a live spot shown on Twitter.

The reporter provided some play by play …

“The shirts came off very early. The guys have disembarked the fire truck twice and it looks like Christian Braun is trying to do it for a third time,” the 9 News reporter stated. “He (Braun) actually cut his hand on something because he’s going that wild. He’s bleeding from the hand. He’s about to jump down right now.

“And here he is,” the reporter added, as Braun, minus the shirt and WWE belt ran up, down and sideways slapping high fives on the street with the parade goers/Nuggets fans.

Thursday’s parade started at Denver’s Union Station (17th and Wykoop) and proceeded down 17th street to Broadway, then south to Civic Center Park for a noon rally.

Braun and Watson were the first two players to appear on a stage in which speeches were given.

Braun said “yes” Thursday when asked by kdvr.com if he ever thought he could be part of a title team his first NBA season. He was the Nuggets’ first-round pick (No. 21 overall) in the 2022 NBA Draft.

“It’s getting better and better every day. Obviously I’m grateful. Obviously we’ve got to get better. This feeling is one I want to repeat again,” Braun added, noting, “I already talked to Jamal (Murray) and those guys want to repeat once again. Great organization, great people and I’m blessed to be around them. I’m more proud to win it for them than I am myself.”

“I had a great time out there,” Braun added of his moments on and off the firetruck on the parade route. “Just being in the truck with the rookies, with all the guys felt great. Those guys are really good people. They deserve this feeling. They deserve that. To be here with them I’m just proud.”

Braun noted that while in the parade he “had different reactions the whole time. Just to be out here with them (teammates). To be with Jeff (Green), to be with DeAndre (Jordan), it makes me happy, makes me proud. To win it for the city of Denver, they deserve this more than I do. To be out here, I just want to get another one.”

Also riding in the parade were: Nuggets starting forward/former Missouri Tiger Michael Porter Jr. and former KU forward and 2008 national champion Darrell Arthur, who is the Nuggets’ associate director of basketball operations.

“I didn’t know we had this many fans. It feels amazing,” Porter said in an interview with KDVR while riding atop one of the firetrucks. Porter was introduced at the rally to wild applause from the fans.

According to denvergazette.com, Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone at the podium praised his team and former Jayhawk wing Braun, calling him a “bad man.”

Braun, who at times guarded the Lakers’ LeBron James in the Western Conference finals and Jimmy Butler of Miami in The Finals, was the Nugget chosen to wear the WWE belt during festivities. It is a tradition for the WWE to send championship teams a custom WWE Championship belt with the team logo as the sideplates.

“They sent this. I think it’s gold. It’s heavy,” Braun said while holding the title belt during TV interviews. “It shows our accomplishment, shows it’s important.”

Fightful.com wrote: “In the same spirit, the Nuggets’ Kentavious Caldwell-Pope celebrated with a ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin beer bash.”

Denver’s “KCP” in fact smashed a couple of cans of beer together in front of his face and drank the forceful spray of liquid which soaked him.

Nikola Jokic, the Finals MVP, according to the Gazette, walked to the podium to chants of “MVP” and told the fans: “This one’s for you.”

Nuggets power forward Aaron Gordon told the crowd from the podium, “This is for the whole city!”

The NBA title was Denver’s first in franchise history covering 47 years.

“It’s hitting me right now,” Malone told the Associated Press after exiting one of several firetrucks. “This is an amazing experience.”

The AP indicted Malone was wearing a shirt that read, “Put this in your pipe and smoke it,” with a picture of the NBA trophy under it. “I’ve got a crazy idea. Let’s do this again. I want to be on another float. I want to be at another parade and do this thing again,” Malone told the crowd from the podium.

Superstar Nikola Jokic spoke to the fans at the rally after being overwhelmed with chants of “MVP.”

“Ok, ok, ok, ok,” he said as reported by the AP. “Thank you. This is amazing. We’re all going to remember this our whole lives.”

Braun averaged 3.2 points and 2.1 rebounds in 19 playoff games. He averaged 13 minutes a game. In the regular season Braun averaged 4.7 points and 2.4 rebounds in 76 games.

Mizzou’s Porter, 24, averaged 13.4 points, 8.1 rebounds in the playoffs. He logged 32.7 minutes a game.

Denver’s mayor estimated between 700,000 and 1 million individuals attended the parade. There were some unfortunate incidents, according to the AP. At the end of the parade route, a police officer was struck by a firetruck and suffered a serious leg injury, Denver Chief of Police Ron Thomas said as quoted by the AP at a news conference. The officer was in serious and stable condition.

Later in the day and after the parade, “a shooting took place in the downtown area that injured two people,” the AP reported. “Thomas said the police didn’t believe the incident was associated with the celebration. It follows a mass shooting in downtown Denver after the Nuggets clinched the title Monday night. The shooting was likely sparked by a drug deal gone wrong, according to police.”

Denver has had two parades in two years. Denver held a downtown parade in June of 2022 after the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup.