Broncos coach Sean Payton impressed by Nuggets’ culture and ownership group: “Man, good to be a Kroenke for the past two years, right?”
Broncos safety Justin Simmons grew up in South Florida.Both had Nuggets hats on while chatting with reporters after Thursday’s OTA session, a few hours before the local hoops team tipped off its first-ever NBA Finals game against the Miami Heat.
“A good amount of my family is Heat fans, but I grew up a Kobe fan so I naturally just cheered for the Lakers for most of my life,” Simmons said. “I think it would be pretty cool to see the Nuggets win the Finals, so that’s who I’m going for.” Surtain hesitated when asked if he was a Heat fan and played the “I’m looking for a good series,” card, but he also said he’s been in his Florida friends’ ears about Nikola Jokic and company.Coach Sean Payton took in a Denver win against Phoenix earlier in the playoffs and said he had a conversation last week with former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski about how the Nuggets and Heat matched up in the title bout.
“He mentioned culture with both teams,” Payton said. “I think you see that with our team and I think you see it from the Heat as well. It’s why they’re the last two teams remaining. But from a beginner’s perspective, when you watch them, you feel that and that’s impressive. … “When I’ve watched them, we all get caught up and we get excited, but your star players are unselfish and I feel like it’s a team that enjoys each other. I’m going to guess they probably do things together off the court and I don’t know that that’s the case with every team.”
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