yo what's going on y'all is curious mike back with another video i know i ain't talked to y'all for a while but you know something interesting happened i'm out here in capri right now actually um i'm out here with some friends and some family i was on the way out here when i got the news that i was traded um i was on a plane ride here and yeah i found out i'm gonna try to do this video in one take so i might be a little all over the place but i want to start off expressing my gratitude to the nuggets organization um i remember when i was first drafted i remember draft night um i remember the whole week leading up to draft i was in a ton of a ton of pain dealing with some some back stuff that i had dealt with in college and then all the way leading up to the to the draft and i remember getting a phone call from tim conley um probably the day before the draft and i had no idea where i was going to land because of the injury history and um you know tim me and him had the first conversation we had the day before the draft we never had any any interview um i interviewed with a lot of other teams and nuggets were not one but i talked to tim the day before and um you know then draft night comes around and uh i always expected to be the number one pick in the draft prior to my injury history so the draft night did not go as i expected as i kept kind of dropping dropping dropping until i got selected by the nuggets with the 14th pick and um and one of these videos i'll go into more depth about that whole draft story but um the point of this video is to express my gratitude to the nuggets organization um tim conley josh kronke stan kronke and the whole front office they took a chance on me that day um they drafted me with the 14th pick and my life was forever changed you know i went out to denver and uh the journey started as a young as a young kid i think i was 18 years old you know just not even really experiencing college much because of the injury stuff that had gone on and um now i'm in the nba um so my first thanks is to you know josh stan um tim conley and the whole front office for taking a chance on me and changing my life you know and then from there when i got to denver i had to deal with all the injury stuff that i had had prior to the draft and uh ended up having to get another surgery my second back surgery before i had played a game in a nuggets uniform and uh so my second thanks i want to thank to the medical team and you know specifically the physical therapists and the trainers over there with the nuggets um steve short you know dan my boy dan my boy jay who helped me a lot through this process and you know everyone else who helped who helped out you guys were tremendous in getting me back into a place where i was able to play the game i loved and um i just want to say thank you for that um you know and then from there it's all the it's all the the little people as some would say that i want to express my gratitude to you know from the equipment managers to the ball boys to the the chef every day you know i developed a relationship with a lot of you guys and um i just want to express my gratitude for every single day showing up for me and being there for me and um you know becoming my friends you know sparky shout out to my guy sparky equipment manager who was there 40 years who recently retired um gene i appreciate you bro uh yeah everybody it's been it's been a treat to to grow up and play in denver from there i want to thank my teammates you know i came in and i had a whole different group of teammates than than the teammates i ended up with but um you know the two guys that were with me along the whole journey jamal murray and nicole yokich um i appreciate you guys you know accepting me coming into the team you know you guys already had your two-man game going on your very potent two-man game and you know when i came there you guys immediately made me feel comfortable with my game and um you guys put me in a position to succeed so i want to thank all my teammates throughout the years over there in denver you know it's been great getting to getting to play with you guys and um eventually win a championship so i appreciate you guys i appreciate you coach malone thank you man for um just for helping me grow up you know and teaching me how to play play the game the right way like i said i pretty much went from high school to the nba because i never got to play i never got to really play college basketball because of the injuries so coach malone i appreciate you um you know helping me out helping me grow as a player and uh really i remember i really broke out in the bubble um it was really my rookie year my rookie year i did not play but then my second year in the nba was really considered my rookie year because um it was my first year playing so we played for a while and then we had that hiatus because of covid i don't even know if you say hi i don't even know if i said hiatus right but we had that break because of covid and then we went out to the bubble and um i actually got a lot of playing time for the first time because a lot of guys were injured or not injured a lot of guys had covid so when i went out there i immediately was starting and um i really broke out you know i think i had three 30 point games in a row um and coach malone really threw me into the fire in those playoffs really as a as a rookie um so i appreciate you coach malone as well so i'm really excited for this next chapter out here in brooklyn i think um over there in denver i felt like my my ceiling had kind of plateaued um you know we we have a very um we we just have a way of playing you know and how joker plays how jamal plays that two-man game is very potent and um you know that's how we play and i am so appreciative of the way we play we end up winning a championship but i do feel like like my ceiling in denver kind of plateaued a little bit and i'm excited for this next chapter in brooklyn for sure it's crazy because me and cam are actually boys uh we're pretty we're pretty cool you know we're even having talks of swapping homes you know he might stay in my crib in denver i might stay where he lived in uh brooklyn um but anyways obviously denver got a great player and a great dude and i'm excited excited for him to be able to finally you know compete for a championship over there and i myself am excited to expand my game and be able to do what i do um yeah but i want to get into the story of how i found out i got traded i actually was on the plane over here to saint tropez and um you know i'm over here trying to enjoy my time before i get back to work before i head back to denver and get back to to work and i'm laying down on the plane and uh i got on the wi-fi and i saw a text i got from my agent and from um someone in the front office over in denver i think it was john wallace just saying you know yo can you get on a phone call it's urgent and i immediately knew what was up i immediately knew it was what was going on um so i couldn't get on the phone with either of them because i'm on the plane you know um and i just started texting back and forth my agent and i was like man where are we going like where am i where am i headed to and he told me brooklyn and my first thought was just like kind of shock honestly because i think two days prior i was walking around my uh my home in denver i actually was staying at the uh the four seasons residences and i was down there at the bar or something and um i ran into john wallace i didn't even know he was the newly appointed gm because i uh yeah i'm off social media so i had no idea i ran into him we sat down we talked for a while and he started telling me you know how we're going to build the team who he wants to get who he wants to surround surround us with you know and who he wants in the second unit he wants to find a point guard that could feed me the ball in the second unit all this stuff getting me really excited but i also think he heard in my voice that i kind of you know wanted to to grow my game i didn't want to plateau i want to keep getting better throughout my career and i think he also heard that but i was i had no idea you know from that conversation i'm thinking we're going to make some changes we're going to move some things around i'm going to feel more comfortable next year um coming back in with that second unit and uh i was excited for it so when i heard the news when i got the text from john wallace and uh you know my my uh agent i was shocked but um at the end of the day that's the nba that's the business and i have no hard feelings and i'm excited for the nuggets organization because like i said previously i think it was a clip that went viral last year but yeah if we don't win a championship within this next year or two after winning you know they're going to make some changes you know nicola's in his prime jamal's in his prime and if we're not stacking the championships we may have to make a change and you know for me it was tough because i wasn't able to play the way i wanted to play i wasn't able to hoop the way i wanted to hoop in the playoffs because of you know my shoulder it's still a little messed up you can kind of see it's a little popped out still still healing up but i was i was severely limited in what i could do in the playoffs and um that was hard that that's the the taste that i left with the nuggets fans and organization you know i really felt like i i let the team down this past playoffs you know i went out there and i tried but i was playing with one arm like legitimately my whole shoulder was popped out torn i was putting a needle in it every other day trying to get the pain down but regardless i went out there and i tried to play after the shoulder injury and i just wasn't able to be myself and i wasn't able to help the team and um you know that hurts that's that's that's how my journey with the nuggets ended but everything happens for a reason you know if you know me you know i'm a man of faith you know i believe i believe in god and you know i tried to put my faith into him in these in these situations i know that he's not going to abandon me you know there's a verse that says those who he began a good work in he's going to complete and i do believe that um so i'm excited for this next chapter i know i'm just rambling but um it's good to be able to get this out before i i go to brooklyn tomorrow and meet with everybody it's just good to express my gratitude to the nuggets and everything and kind of tell y'all how i'm feeling with everything um i'm very excited and i'm ready to to get this next chapter of my life rolling uh yeah so i got this little camera you know what i'm saying i'm gonna be dropping more videos once in a while whenever you know something comes to mind i'm gonna i'm gonna try to get back on this curious mike thing a little bit um so i appreciate y'all tuning in curious mike out