Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke has picked up a third major championship in just two years after the Denver Nuggets won the NBA Finals for the first time in their history on Monday night.
The American won the Super Bowl in 2022 with the Los Angeles Rams as well as the NHL Stanley Cup with Colorado Avalanche in the same year.
Now Kroenke has added the NBA Finals to his list of sporting honours just weeks after Arsenal were pipped to the Premier League title by Manchester City.
The 75-year-old has made himself a billionaire predominantly through real estate but also his increasing sports portfolio.
The Nuggets once again relied heavily on Nikola Jokic in steering them to a 94-89 win over Miami Heat to give them an unassailable 4-1 lead in the seven-match series in front of their home crowd at Ball Arena.
The Serbian scored 28 points as well as 16 rebounds and four assists, and was named the Finals’ MVP to add to overall MVP titles won back in 2021 and 2022.
Following the victory, Jokic said: “It was an amazing effort by the team. We’re not in it for ourselves, we’re in it for the guy next to us and that’s why this means even more.
“That is what basketball is such a fun sport, it is a love thing, you cannot say this is going to happen, there are so many factors. I’m just so happy we won the game.
“It was ugly and we couldn’t make shorts but, at the end, we figured it out.”
The Nuggets had been the stand-out team in post-season with 10 wins out of their last 11 matches.
Across the finals, Jokic averaged 30 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists. In the process, he became the lowest drafted player to be named finals MVP – he had been a second-round draft pick back in 2014.
Jokic was ably assisted on the night by Michael Porter, who added 16 points and 13 rebounds for the Nuggets, on a far from slick night when the eventual champions missed 20 of 22 three-point attempts.
Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo led Miami’s response with 21 and 20 points respectively in a series where they were always on the back foot to the Nuggets, who enjoyed overall victory for the first time in their 47-year history.
