The exclusive list Christian Braun joined proves his winning ways

DENVER—Christian Braun was one of the most important players for the Denver Nuggets this year.

When Braun put his hands on the Larry O’Brien Trophy on Monday, he accomplished something only four other people ever have. Braun has now won five major championships and two in a row. He captured the NCAA Championship and NBA Title in back-to-back years, which put him on a very exclusive list.

Braun played 19 of the 20 Nuggets playoff games as they went 16-4 en route to the championship. He scored 3.2 points and 2.1 rebounds per game. He popped off for 15 points, three assists and three steals in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, and he picked up four steals in one of Denver’s Western Conference Finals games.

Braun was the No. 21 pick out of Kansas in the 2022 NBA Draft, coming off a season where he scored 14 a game for the Jayhawks.

Only Bill Russell, Henry Bibby, Magic Johnson and Billy Thompson had won an NBA championship and played in the NCAA championship game for the winning team in back-to-back years.

Russell was the first, doing so in 1956 for San Francisco then in 1957 for the Boston Celtics. The man whose name bears the Finals MVP that Nikola Jokic won, was an 11-time NBA champion. Russell actually won in three straight seasons, when you consider he went to back-to-back at San Francisco. His reign briefly ended in 1958, before winning eight more titles in a row, then another two on his way out of the NBA.

Next came Bibby who won at UCLA in 1972 then for the New York Knicks in 1973. Bibby started the first 45 games of what would eventually become the legendary 88-game win streak for the Bruins. Of course Nuggets legend David Thompson ended that streak in an NCAA title game he won for NC State. Bibby didn’t have a huge role on the Knicks but blossomed in a good NBA career.

The next may be the most famous, as Magic won Finals MVP his rookie season in 1980, after winning it all for Michigan State in 1979. Final Four Most Outstanding Player into the best or second-best (hi Kareem) player on a title-winning NBA team is a crazy two-year stretch.

The last one before Braun happened nearly 40 years ago and it was Magic’s teammate, Thompson. He won for Louisville in 1986 then with the Lakers in 1987.

So there you have it, Braun is in an elite club of winners.

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