Former Raptor Bruce Brown provided context for remarks he made last week regarding his time in Toronto.
Brown spoke with TSN’s Kayla Grey Monday night in Vancouver ahead of the Denver Nuggets’ preseason game against the Raptors.
“Media day they asked me, ‘When did you think about getting to Denver?’ And I said when I got to Toronto, and that wasn’t, like I didn’t want to go to Toronto. I went to Indy. I finally chose where I could go, and three months in, they trade me, and I’m like why the f*** did I go?
“I could have stayed in Denver and been happy. Toronto, I think Toronto’s one of the best cities in the NBA easily. Like, I loved my time in Toronto. It’s insane.
“So don’t let people on social media, twist my words, because I loved my time in Toronto but it’s just the beast of it,” Brown said.
Spoke with Bruce Brown before tonight’s game vs. Raptors. I asked him to provide (much needed) context around the comments he made during Nuggets’ media day which may have come off as him slighting his time in Toronto. pic.twitter.com/MIF4DoQZ39
— Kayla Grey (@Kayla_Grey) October 7, 2025
Brown was referencing comments he made on media day that raised the eyebrows of some Raptor fans.
“I left [Denver] obviously because I got paid really well; I didn’t want to leave,” Brown said via Marc J. Spears of Andscape last week. “It was tough to leave, but I had to. I was in a place like Indy, which was on the verge of being really good. And I ended up being traded to teams where they were rebuilding and not really in a position to win a championship. And if you know how I play, I like to win. I don’t like to lose.”
Brown, 29, won a championship with the Nuggets during the 2022-23 season and signed with the Indiana Pacers on a two-year, $45 million deal later that summer. But after just 33 games with the Pacers, Brown was sent to Toronto as part of the Pascal Siakam trade, ending his tenure in Indiana just months after singing there as a free agent.
The Raps were 15-25 at the time of the trade and had traded OG Anunoby to the New York Knicks approximately two weeks prior to the Siakam deal, indicating a rebuild, which Brown indicated last week was hard to deal with.
“So, as soon as I got to Toronto, I thought about coming back to Denver right away. Fast forward to getting traded to New Orleans. Another tough spot. A lot of injuries there. And the whole time I was in New Orleans, I was thinking about the Nuggets,” he said last week.
He also hasn’t been shy about how much he enjoys being with the Nuggets.
“The organization is great. The locker room is always great for me, the chemistry that we have. And then the city, I can just be myself. Like I can wear my western wear, my cowboys hats and just be myself,” Brown said via Joel Rush of Forbes.
Bruce Brown on returning to Denver & the #Nuggets:
“The city, I can just be myself. I can wear my western wear, my cowboy hats, and just be my authentic self here.
And I felt like everywhere else it just felt a little weird or indifferent. So I’m just happy to be back, man.” pic.twitter.com/jQ2D6OrWGu
— Joel Rush (@JoelRushNBA) October 4, 2025
The Raptors traded Brown to the Pelicans this past February and he re-joined the Nuggets as a free agent earlier this summer.
All in all, Brown appeared in a total of 52 games with the Raptors, averaging 9.2 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 23.8 minutes per game. He’s also spent time with the Detroit Pistons and Brooklyn Nets in addition to the Nuggets, Pacers, Raptors and Pelicans over the course of his seven-year NBA career.