Denver Nuggets Owner Josh Kroenke Discusses Why He Took a Chance Drafting MPJ After Back Surgeries
00:00:00.000 | I want to talk a little bit about your guys' thought process with me coming into the league.
00:00:06.160 | Obviously you were both from Columbia, so you had known about me and things like that,
00:00:10.320 | but I had been through a lot.
00:00:12.840 | The Clippers doctor spread the report throughout the league that they didn't know, they weren't
00:00:17.440 | sure if I'd be able to play basketball considering my injuries, and a lot of teams were scared
00:00:22.520 | away by that.
00:00:23.520 | I remember the first time I got on the phone with the Nuggets was with Tim Conley on the
00:00:27.160 | day of the draft because my agent wanted to kind of create a floor like, "Okay, if he
00:00:31.640 | drops it here, this team will take him."
00:00:34.340 | So I had no idea going into the draft what was going to happen.
00:00:36.820 | What were those conversations like behind doors about me?
00:00:42.920 | My Michael Porter Jr. story first starts, I think you were in 7th or 8th grade.
00:00:49.400 | A friend of mine sent me this link of some unknown skinny kid going up for a dunk.
00:00:57.600 | I was like, "Wow, this kid is supposedly the best 8th grader in the country."
00:01:01.720 | I was like, "Wow, I've never seen an 8th grader look at the rim almost like you were."
00:01:07.240 | Then I was like, "Wait a minute, that's Jeff City's gym, that's Jefferson City.
00:01:13.840 | I know that gym, we're my high school rivals."
00:01:17.320 | So I did a quick search to try to find out more of what I was watching.
00:01:22.760 | I was quickly told that Central Missouri had one of the best players in the country.
00:01:29.200 | I was like, "That section of the country doesn't produce talent like you."
00:01:35.000 | I was very aware of who you were from an early age.
00:01:38.560 | I followed your career because I was kind of proud that we had someone of your caliber
00:01:42.240 | coming out of that section of the state.
00:01:48.200 | I followed your career and then I was going to watch your first game at Mizzou.
00:01:54.480 | Then I heard about what had happened.
00:01:57.800 | I think you were going through warm-ups, right?
00:01:59.400 | There was a couple of days leading up to it where you had some tightness, right?
00:02:02.160 | Yeah, the injury.
00:02:03.160 | It happened a few days prior, but that was my first time experiencing anything strange,
00:02:07.240 | so I thought it would just dissipate and it got worse.
00:02:10.280 | First game comes around.
00:02:11.280 | Yeah, and you were going through warm-ups and I think you had to play the first 10 seconds
00:02:14.400 | before they ... It was so close to game time, they'd already turned in the lineup, right?
00:02:17.800 | It was so close to game time.
00:02:18.800 | They'd already put the lineup up.
00:02:19.800 | So I go to my dad and I'm like, "Dad, I don't think I can play.
00:02:22.080 | I don't know what's going on, but I can't jump right.
00:02:24.760 | I can't produce force like I want to."
00:02:28.160 | Then we went to the coaches and they were like, "Okay, you just have to start the game
00:02:30.920 | because a big national TV game, you're the number one player in the country going to
00:02:35.360 | the University of Missouri, which never happens."
00:02:38.640 | So yeah, I had to play the first 10 seconds and came out.
00:02:43.040 | Then I followed what was going on and I knew you were really rushing to get back because
00:02:50.220 | you wanted to help your team.
00:02:52.680 | That told me a lot about your character.
00:02:54.800 | If you were already thinking about the pros, which is a natural thing, I think that there's
00:03:00.840 | probably part of you that wants to think ultra long-term in that scenario.
00:03:05.520 | I'm sure there was people around you, but it also told me that there was a person inside
00:03:10.080 | of you, inside of that player, that was really competitive, that wanted to get out there
00:03:14.360 | and you wanted to help your teammates.
00:03:18.000 | As I watched that spring evolve and I heard about your draft workouts, leading into that
00:03:24.040 | week, I thought your floor in the draft, I think Chicago had seven, seven or eight.
00:03:32.040 | I also knew that when you were healthy, you were probably the best, if not one of the
00:03:36.300 | top two or three players in that draft.
00:03:39.320 | We had just missed the playoffs by one game that year.
00:03:46.720 | We were thinking that once we made it back to the playoffs, we knew we weren't going
00:03:51.760 | backwards.
00:03:52.760 | We had a good young team and we just had a few things that we thought to really put us
00:03:57.680 | in a new level.
00:04:01.520 | The day of the draft, I remember coming over and Tim had called me the night before the
00:04:05.040 | draft and he goes, "Hey, I'm just going to put something on your radar."
00:04:07.120 | I was like, "What's up?"
00:04:08.800 | Because by missing the playoffs by one game, we picked 14 in the lottery.
00:04:16.800 | Tim called me, he's like, "Hey, I want to put something on your radar."
00:04:18.520 | I'm like, "What's up?"
00:04:19.520 | He goes, "I heard something from a buddy of mine that Chicago might pass."
00:04:25.520 | I'm like, "I thought you told me earlier today that that was Michael's floor."
00:04:29.840 | He goes, "I don't know.
00:04:31.840 | I don't know what happened.
00:04:32.840 | I'm still trying to gather the information.
00:04:33.840 | I'll talk to you about it in the morning."
00:04:35.240 | I said, "Okay."
00:04:36.240 | I came in the day of the draft and Tim Arturas and I sit down and they said that you may
00:04:42.380 | have had a spasm or something, like you had a workout and it might have scared a few teams.
00:04:46.360 | I was like, "Really?"
00:04:47.360 | I was like, "Can we get more data on it?"
00:04:51.320 | They're like, "We're still trying to piece it together, but he could fall."
00:04:56.000 | I was like, "What do you mean he could fall?"
00:04:58.600 | I was like, "Guys, that skill set does not grow on trees."
00:05:03.920 | I was like, "What do you mean he could fall?"
00:05:04.920 | They're like, "Well, the teams could get scared of the back."
00:05:09.920 | I said, "Okay."
00:05:10.920 | Then I rang my dad.
00:05:14.680 | He came down that afternoon and then the four of us, Arturas, Tim, myself, my dad, and we
00:05:19.360 | pulled Coach Malone in as well.
00:05:20.800 | We said, "Look, if he's there, we're going to take him."
00:05:25.240 | We got all our doctors in.
00:05:27.720 | It was a really great group experience because we all had to put our heads together from
00:05:31.520 | our own perspective.
00:05:32.520 | Tim and Arturas knew that they believed in your skill set and your talent.
00:05:37.760 | Then you had Coach Malone who was understanding that this is something that was going to play
00:05:41.220 | out over multiple years, whereas a lot of coaches, and this is their job, coaches have
00:05:46.920 | one responsibility.
00:05:47.920 | That's to win the next game.
00:05:51.040 | You have to put, and then our perspective is even further, it's how can we create the
00:05:54.920 | best talent over time.
00:05:58.200 | When your name was still there, it was a no-brainer for us.
00:06:00.640 | It might sound funny to some people, but I was really worried that the ... You referenced
00:06:07.400 | a team that had two picks ahead of us, and I thought somebody might take a chance.
00:06:11.040 | Somebody's got to take a chance.
00:06:12.040 | I think they may have if it wasn't for their doctor that was doing the main analysis on
00:06:17.520 | me that day.
00:06:20.560 | Our decision in the room that day when we all kind of walked out after discussing the
00:06:23.720 | different concerns and thoughts from all of our own perspectives was we'll never have
00:06:29.640 | a chance to draft another player like you, especially at that point in time with the
00:06:35.040 | group of players that we had, the skill set that you brought.
00:06:40.000 | You could raise our ceiling immensely, but we knew it wasn't going to be right away.
00:06:47.840 | Once we drafted you, we got you in, we let our doctors take a look at you, we made sure
00:06:52.560 | that you felt like one of the family, and we knew that there was going to be a long
00:06:56.600 | journey ahead.
00:06:57.600 | I think you may have known, but looking back, you maybe didn't even realize what you were
00:07:02.080 | going to have to go through, and so you had another surgery.
00:07:05.440 | We sat you out that whole first year.
00:07:08.200 | We tried to make you feel like you were part of the group.
00:07:11.280 | Hopefully you did, even though you weren't getting to play, but I remember coming over
00:07:14.900 | to training camp that first year when, I don't even think you could play, all you could do
00:07:19.800 | was just do stand still shooting.
00:07:23.200 | Our shooting coach at the time was, was it Mark Price?
00:07:27.720 | Mark Price.
00:07:28.720 | Yeah, Mark Price.
00:07:29.720 | See, I remember.
00:07:30.720 | And Mark and I were standing there, and I was like, "Mark, what do you think of our
00:07:33.040 | group?"
00:07:34.040 | And he goes, "Wow, there's some really good young players."
00:07:36.120 | That was when he started to ask about Nicola, and Nicola was just starting to really show
00:07:39.480 | the level that he could dominate.
00:07:42.840 | And I was like, "What do you think?"
00:07:43.840 | And he goes, "I think you've got a really great, great group here."
00:07:45.700 | He goes, "But I'll tell you what."
00:07:46.700 | He goes, "Best shooter in this gym can't play right now."
00:07:50.440 | And I was like, "You're talking about Michael, right?"
00:07:52.440 | And he goes, "Yep."
00:07:53.440 | He goes, "I'm talking about Michael."
00:07:54.440 | He goes, "Just take your time with him.
00:07:57.600 | Be patient."
00:07:58.600 | But he goes, "That guy's the best shooter in this gym."
00:08:02.040 | And I said, "Well, that's our plan."
00:08:05.620 | And so over the course of that year, and then I think your first full season was the COVID
00:08:11.600 | year, right?
00:08:12.600 | Is that right?
00:08:13.600 | Yeah.
00:08:14.600 | My first full season was the first half of the season, and then we go to the bubble.
00:08:17.520 | Yeah.
00:08:18.520 | My first full season.
00:08:19.520 | And so I saw an important step out of you, which was over that first, I don't know, six
00:08:24.320 | months of the season, I think you were up and down as any rookie is going to be.
00:08:28.920 | You're learning how to play.
00:08:29.960 | You're learning where you fit in the different roles, and you're learning how to play with
00:08:33.900 | some of these guys around you.
00:08:35.800 | And then the season stops, like right around this time four years ago, COVID hits.
00:08:41.240 | We go into our cocoons, and then we emerge in the bubble a few months later.
00:08:47.480 | And you went from a rookie to a second year player in that little two month span.
00:08:54.840 | In that gap.
00:08:55.840 | Yeah.
00:08:56.840 | And so when you came into that bubble, I saw a different Michael.
00:08:59.400 | I saw a more confident Michael.
00:09:01.840 | I saw one that knew how to fit within our team, but also went to really use your own
00:09:07.840 | skill set to drive us forward.
00:09:10.160 | And I remember you hitting some big shots in the bubble, and seeing our team really
00:09:14.200 | start to believe in each other, and I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it.
00:09:19.200 | But then you come out of that, it's kind of a very short off season.
00:09:23.240 | We lose Jeremy, we replace him with Aaron, and then Jamal gets hurt.
00:09:28.780 | And so I knew there was a special group in there, and then you have to wait almost two
00:09:32.760 | years, and that required a lot of patience on our end.
00:09:36.440 | And we never even remotely thought about veering off the path of the roster that we had.
00:09:42.560 | And now that we got everybody healthy, I could see that you guys last fall, there was a little
00:09:47.440 | bit of a period where you kind of had to play your way into it again.
00:09:51.120 | Jamal had to play his way into it again, gain that confidence in your body.
00:09:54.960 | And then by March, I could tell we were locked in, and then we were just ready for the playoffs.
00:10:01.680 | And then it was like, OK, let's be healthy come April and see where the chips fall.
00:10:06.680 | And I was really proud of the way that you guys just immediately locked in to go 16-4
00:10:13.120 | against the NBA's best shot.
00:10:15.400 | That's not something that a lot of people can say.
00:10:18.800 | Well, man, I mean, man to man, I appreciate you guys so much taking the chance on me.
00:10:24.400 | I appreciate you, man.
00:10:25.400 | I remember I said at draft night I was going to do whatever I could to be one of the best
00:10:29.680 | draft picks that you guys could ever draft.
00:10:32.120 | And still, I've been through a lot, but like you saw at Mizzou, giving up and giving into
00:10:38.320 | whatever injuries, that's not part of my DNA.
00:10:41.080 | But I'm so happy to be a Nugget, you know what I mean?
00:10:44.120 | People ask me all the time about that whole draft situation, and I'm like, God does work
00:10:49.640 | in mysterious ways, because it's a blessing that somehow I fell to 14, to a team that
00:10:53.880 | was already winning, so I got to take my time and not rush back after the injury.
00:10:58.920 | And now we've just built this program, this championship level program, from really the
00:11:05.440 | ground up, with adding small pieces, and we got it continued rolling with the young guys
00:11:10.560 | we got now.
00:11:11.560 | Peyton, CB.
00:11:12.560 | I know Julian's not playing right now, but Julian, some of the guards we got.