{"id":202871,"date":"2025-10-10T12:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T12:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/202871\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T12:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T12:06:07","slug":"i-want-to-win-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/202871\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I want to win again’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The inexplicable secret to unlocking Bruce Brown\u2019s<\/a> jumper was to introduce stakes \u2014 real or otherwise.<\/p>\n

Shooting has never been his strength on the basketball court, even during his previous stint with the Nuggets<\/a>, but he was especially raw as a burgeoning prospect at Vermont Academy. \u201cHe could not shoot in high school,\u201d admits Alex Popp, his prep coach.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy enough for Popp to understand why that was. Brown had a gangly, disproportionate wingspan, great for ball-hawking (in basketball and football) but potentially obstructive to shooting mechanics. He also had enough natural talent relative to his peers that he didn\u2019t need to rely on the 3-pointer. \u201cIt\u2019s like, well, if you can get to the basket, that\u2019s a higher point-per-possession opportunity,\u201d Popp said.<\/p>\n

What still eludes his grasp is how Brown could suddenly shoot the lights out when those lights were brightest. How his efficiency skyrocketed against Vermont\u2019s toughest opponents. How, in practice, \u201cthe second we would do shooting drills, he would find a way to beat the guys who were going to college as 3-point specialists.\u201d Guys like Corey Johnson, who went on to be a high-volume marksman at Harvard.<\/p>\n

In an empty gym, with bragging rights on the line, Teenage Bruce could refine his form and match Johnson\u2019s precision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s why analytics can only get you so far, right?\u201d Popp said. \u201cWe\u2019re still humans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown has defied conventions and percentages throughout his career, and he defied the conventional wisdom of NBA free agency this summer by treating Denver as a dream destination. After two years of exploring life without each other, he and the Nuggets are back together for another season. He signed a one-year, $3 million contract in July that\u2019ll cost the team $2.3 million against the salary cap.<\/p>\n

His earliest coaches can see why it\u2019s a perfect match. They noticed years ago what Denver experienced in 2023 and coveted again in 2025: the temperament, the diverse skill set, the willingness to adapt. The qualities, those coaches say, of a winning player.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning smile,\u201d former Wakefield High School coach Brad Simpson said. \u201cHe put me at ease, and I\u2019m sure puts a lot of people at ease.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Brown hasn\u2019t played much winning basketball since he left Colorado to sign a $45 million contract with Indiana. He was out of Denver\u2019s price range after the championship, by CBA law. Life-changing money awaited on the open market. \u201cBrucey B had to go get a bag,\u201d as Aaron Gordon summed it up simply.<\/p>\n

Brown spent those two years playing for Indiana, Toronto and New Orleans, but often thinking about Denver, envisioning a chance to return. He stayed active in a group chat with teammates<\/a>. He kept a compilation of his 2022-23 highlights saved on his phone. He sat court-side at a playoff game between the Nuggets and Clippers \u201cto prove a point that I wanted to be back,\u201d he said recently at a local private event hosted by Jackson Family Wines. He followed through on that point by taking the Nuggets\u2019 offer amid interest from other teams, including the Lakers and Suns, league sources told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018You know what, I don\u2019t care how much (I get offered). If I get somewhere more, I don\u2019t care. I\u2019m just gonna go back to Denver because I just think it\u2019s a perfect fit for me,\u2019\u201d Brown said. \u201cPlaying style, and I mean, I want to win again. So I think it was a pretty quick answer for me once I found out they wanted me back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BruceBruce Brown (11) of the Denver Nuggets lets the Miami Heat crowd know his name in the first half of the Nuggets\u2019 108-95 win during Game 4 of the NBA Finals at the Kaseya Center in Miami on Friday, June 9, 2023. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n

What explains the magnetism? It could be Brown\u2019s appetite for big games, his innate knack for rising to the moment like he always did for Popp, or like he did when he scored 11 points in the last five minutes of NBA Finals Game 4<\/a>. It could be that Denver has functioned on ball movement, body movement and team-oriented offense around Nikola Jokic for years now, and Brown has always fashioned himself as a malleable part of his five-man ecosystem, not as a one-man show \u2014 even when he really could\u2019ve been.<\/p>\n

Simpson likes to tell a story about the margin between Brown\u2019s talent and ego. It was the summer before his freshman year at Wakefield, a high school in the suburbs north of Boston. Some of Wakefield\u2019s team was competing in an informal summer league together, and Simpson got a call one morning from a player asking if his friend from the city, whose mom had enrolled him at Wakefield, could suit up.<\/p>\n

Simpson sat in the bleachers that night, watching with a couple of other coaches as the skinny newcomer warmed up. When Brown threw down a vicious slam dunk, they fell backward from amazement. Then Brown defied Simpson\u2019s expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could\u2019ve taken over that game,\u201d he said. \u201cBut he passed the ball, found the open man, didn\u2019t take many shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown became a two-sport star at Wakefield, showing early signs of FBS potential as a wide receiver or defensive back. His AAU program, the BABC Academy<\/a>, had certain non-negotiable demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe press the whole game, every game, for 49 years,\u201d coach Leo Papile said. \u201cIt\u2019s just something we like to do. Today, a lot of guys have different ideas of how they view themselves. They may think of that as beneath them. Like, \u2018Hey, I can really play. This is for guys who can\u2019t play. It\u2019s the way they get on the court.\u2019 Not with Bruce.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown was delighted by the full-court defensive system. It was a convenient outlet for his cornerback skills, after Vermont Academy dissolved its football program the year he transferred there. Papile played him at various positions in the press, whether up top or in the middle of a 1-2-1-1. A decade later, at Nuggets training camp, Brown proudly told reporters unprompted that he and Peyton Watson were pressing full-court at practice. \u201cHe just loved running around, like a hyena,\u201d Papile said. \u201cGo get the ball. I think that\u2019s what has earmarked him, why teams value him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s competitive wiring was tenacious, but his default setting was always easygoing. Popp remembers him getting recruited by then-Rhode Island coach Dan Hurley, who tried to convince Popp why Brown might not be ready for a power conference yet and how he could benefit from Atlantic 10 hoops. \u201cI\u2019m like, I get that,\u201d Popp said. \u201cBut once you spend a couple months around Bruce, you quickly realize that so much of what makes him special as a player is who he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BruceBruce Brown (11) of the Indiana Pacers flashes his championship ring as he stands beside former teammate Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (5) of the Denver Nuggets before the first quarter at Ball Arena in Denver on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s well-established fixation on the cowboy aesthetic might be the final form of his free-and-easy demeanor \u2014 and another reason Colorado calls to him. He has a home in Nashville and spends free time on a ranch near Denver when he can. It was all a natural progression for someone who\u2019s spent his whole life branching out into new environments, from an upbringing in Boston proper to high school in the suburbs, from prep basketball in rural Vermont to college in tropical Miami.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he was enthused by culture change, physical change,\u201d Papile said. \u201cA lot of us end up living and dying on the same block. We go to the same church. We eat the same food. Bruce is more of a global ambassador. He enjoys folks from all walks of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also feels loyal to the formative places in his life. He returns to them. A couple of years ago, Simpson and his wife were walking their dogs around a lake in Wakefield when they recognized two young adults riding past on bikes: Brown and one of his former teammates. They stopped to say hi. Simpson beamed. \u201cBack in Wakefield again!\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown couldn\u2019t stay away from a place that he considered home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The inexplicable secret to unlocking Bruce Brown\u2019s jumper was to introduce stakes \u2014 real or otherwise. Shooting has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[3891,64,63,726,3892,3912,3895,3897,1662,3913,70574,3901,3914,3905,590,2656,12553,3906,3907,120244,3909,126416,85],"class_list":["post-202871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-aaron-gordon","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-bruce-brown","tag-colorado","tag-contract","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-front-range","tag-harvard","tag-jamal-murray","tag-latest-headlines","tag-more-nuggets-news","tag-nba","tag-nba-finals","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-nuggets","tag-nuggets-training-camp","tag-peyton-watson","tag-prep-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}