After a gritty comeback, the Denver Nuggets clinched victory over the Miami Heat 94-89 on Monday night to win their first NBA championship after 47 years in the league.
Two-time NBA MVP Nikola JokiÄ led the way for the Nuggets overcoming a 10-point deficit in the second quarter to close out the series 4-1.
The 28-year-old Serb was named the Finals’ most valuable player to add to the two overall MVPs he won in 2021 and 2022.
The Nuggets are owned by 75-year-old billionaire and sports mogul Stan Kroenke, who is celebrating his fourth title in 18 months following championship runs by the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche and the National Lacrosse League’s Colorado Mammoth.
"It was a dogfight," Kroenke said in a rare interview. "I mean, that’s how they play. They are tough. That’s a great organisation. Great coach. Pat Riley’s amazing, his influence on basketball and number of championships. just how clever they are with everything.
"But that was a dogfight, and for our guys to go out there and persevere and win that thing, that was awesome."
So who is the elusive billionaire and businessman, and what is his net worth?
Who is Stan Kroenke?
Missouri-born billionaire Stan Kroenke is a sports and real estate mogul.
As chairman of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, the 75-year has accrued a plethora of sports teams, including English Premier League club Arsenal FC.
Widely known as “Silent Stan,” Kroenke rarely speaks to reporters, but in 2000 he told the Denver Post: “One of my dreams was to be involved in a professional basketball team. This is a dream I’ve had for a long time.”
Married to Walmart heiress Ann Walton Kroenke, also a billionaire, Kroenke is also a major landowner, with more than 1.5 million acres of ranches across the US and Canada.
Which teams does he own?
Kroenke is the owner of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which is the holding company of Arsenal FC, Arsenal WFC, the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL, the Denver Nuggets of the NBA, Colorado Avalanche of the NHL and Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.
In 2017, he expanded to e-sports as the founding owner of the Los Angeles Gladiators, one of the original franchises of the Overwatch League, followed by the Los Angeles Guerrillas in 2019 of the Call of Duty League.
Forbes valued KSE’s sports assets at $12.75 billion in January, making it the world’s largest privately held sports empire.
“It’s like having children,” Kroenke said of owning his sports clubs. “You love them all,”
Kroenke’s holding company for sports teams has been controversial at times.
In 2016, he broke contracts by moving the St. Louis Rams to Los Angeles, incurring legal costs to the whole league.
In 2021, Kroenke was involved in a failed effort to end the traditional European football system by creating a closed European Super League which drew widespread and unanimous condemnation from supporters and the wider footballing community.
Arsenal fans have also been critical of the American businessman, who now owns 100 per cent of the Gunners, having bought his first shares in 2007. He has been accused of being too distracted from the club in the past, however, perception has changed somewhat as transfer funds have been made available regularly.
What is Stan Kroenke’s net worth?
Forbes estimates Kroenke’s net worth to be around the $12.9 billion mark.
Among his biggest sports assets are the Nuggets, valued by Forbes at $1.93 billion, the Rams at $6.2 billion and Arsenal at $2.26 billion.
Kroenke also owns around 60 million square feet of properties, as well as more than 1.5 million acres of ranches and a majority stake in StorageMart, a privately held self-storage company, making up around $5 billion of his wealth.
