Bruce Brown Breaks Down Ill-Fated Attempt To Outdrink Nikola Jokić After NBA Finals

Getty Image

Most professional athletes who manage to win a title waste absolutely no time celebrating their achievement with the help of the beer, champagne, and other adult beverages that tend to flow like the waters of Niagara Falls in the locker room after their victory.

In many cases, those postgame festivities mark the start of a well-earned bender that can stretch to the victory parade and beyond, which (as anyone who’s participated in a multiday drinking marathon probably knows) usually culminates in a pretty brutal reality check when you finally sober up.

Plenty of players on the Denver Nuggets opted to go that route after the franchise secured its first-ever NBA title earlier this year—including Bruce Brown, who hopped on Instagram while laying in bed in a Las Vegas hotel room to blame Nikola Jokić for the crippling hangover he found himself nursing following a very long night in Sin City.

Now, we’ve gotten a bit more insight into what led to the fateful update courtesy of Brown himself, as he recounted what went down during a recent appearance on the Run Your Race podcast (the segment in question kicks off around an hour into the video).

Brown—who is listed at 6’4″ and 202 lbs—admitted he made the ill-advised decision to try to outdrink the 6’11”, 284 lb. Jokić and, well, it’s safe to say he regretted it based on what transpired:

“He had me drinking some Serbian whiskey. He was taking shots. 

My goal all night was to get him drunk, right? And he just flipped the script. He’s a bigger body, and I wasn’t even thinking that. We were taking shots of some Serbian whiskey and I was finished, bro. I learned my lesson. He’s different. 

The flight was the next morning. We had a [private jet] at like 8. I woke up at 11:50, called [CAA Executive Simone Capers] and was like, ‘Can you put me on a flight?”

Sounds about right.