Move over Kendrick Lamar and Drake (and, I guess, Shaquille O’Neal and Shannon Sharpe?) The reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets had a beef to settle with … themselves.
After a dominating 117-90 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night, head coach Michael Malone revealed he had pieced together an edited video of every major media personality counting the Nuggets out. Seemingly everyone who stuck a fork in them after losing the first two games of their second-round series at home was involved. (I’d imagine a certain MVP moment with Nikola Jokic might have played a role, too.)
Malone didn’t personally send the video to his team; he had backup center DeAndre Jordan do it, who relayed the unofficial diss track to the rest of the Nuggets in a team group text.
The Nuggets — spurred by Jokic and a fiery Jamal Murray — obviously responded quite well to the video. We now have a real series again, folks:
"I had an edit made… of every talking head in this country saying that the series is over, the Nuggets are done, it's a wrap. … If that doesn’t resonate within you as a competitor I don’t know what will.”
Coach Malone's message entering Game 3 🔊 pic.twitter.com/4M9xzkfMCc
— NBA TV (@NBATV) May 11, 2024
Coach Malone said he had a cut made of “every talking head” & “all the big personalities” counting the Nuggets out. Saying they were done.
He said he knew it would strike a chord. “If that doesn’t resonate with you as a competitor I don’t know what will.”
— Katy Winge (@katywinge) May 11, 2024
Coach Malone said he wasn’t sure he was going to show it to the team. So he showed DeAndre Jordan. Jordan said “hell yeah.” https://t.co/amQweAxPUC
— Katy Winge (@katywinge) May 11, 2024
What a stroke of genius. It’s not often you see head coaches start beefs with their own team, let alone make diss tracks of them. Truly flipping coaching tactics on their head.
In all seriousness, the Nuggets clearly needed a little jolt, a little “you still belong here,” a little “remember who you are,” a little “no one respects you right now.” Making an unofficial diss track of everyone on TV doubting them led to arguably the most complete wire-to-wire performance of the defending champions’ season.
Suffice it to say: Malone knew what he was doing.