The Denver Nuggets were unstoppable last season. Nikola Jokic led the franchise to its first ever NBA championship in great fashion, taking down the likes of the Los Angeles Lakers or the Golden State Warriors en route to the title.
Once they beat the Miami Heat in the Finals, the Nuggets mocked the Lakers more than any other team. At some point they seemed to be a bit obsessed with the purple and gold, but some of their players had history with them.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope spent four seasons in LA from 2017 to 2021, when he was sent to Washington as part of the Russell Westbrook trade. Two years later, the guard admitted that moment hurt him.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope gets real on being traded by the Lakers in 2021
“When (the Lakers trade) happened, I was a little hurt, no doubt about that,” Caldwell-Pope told Sam Amick of The Athletic. “But I had to move on. I thought I was gonna be there (with the Lakers) for a while, especially after the championship. But it didn’t go that way. I felt like at the end of the day, business is business.
“I got a call from my good friend Brad (Beal, the day before the trade went down), and he just asked me how I would feel about playing with him. I’d (known) him since we were 15, and that’s one thing we always talked about was playing with each other. And then the next morning, it happened.”
Even though that moment may have been painful, it turned out to be for the best. Eventually, Caldwell-Pope found a place where he could win his second ring.
