Christian Braun is blazing!

Just one year after winning the NCAA Men’s National Championship with the Kansas Jayhawks, the rookie for the Denver Nuggets is enjoying his first NBA championship this week.

And Braun’s accolades don’t end there: as a sophomore, junior, and senior at Blue Valley Northwest High School in Overland, Kansas, he won three straight state championships.

The answer is really rather simple: “Obviously, winning is more fun,” the Nuggets shooting guard said to reporters when they questioned him about his incredible winning streak in the NBA Finals.

After winning an NCAA championship at his alma mater, Braun became the fifth player in NBA history to win a championship in his rookie season. His remarkable run of success places him in the ranks of NBA champions such as Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, Henry Bibby, and Billy Thompson. The Denver Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat 94-89 to win the 2023 NBA Finals.

JAMIE SCHWABEROW/NCAA PHOTOS VIA GETTY IMAGES

The previous “Mr. Kansas Basketball” winner, who led the Huskies with roughly 30 points per game while attending his old high school, was even given his own “Christian Braun Day” honors.

Before the Nuggets selected him 21st overall in the previous NBA Draft, the rising star at Kansas exceeded the coveted 1,000-point threshold in his three seasons with the Jayhawks, leading his team to the 2022 NCAA championship.

With the emergence of the explosive pair of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, Denver has been a title contender in recent years, and Braun has proven to be one of the missing pieces.

During the regular season, Braun came off the bench for Denver, but he reserved his best for crucial moments. Braun scored 15 crucial points on seven of eight shots against the Miami Heat in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.The NBA champion son of Nikola Jokic needed to be persuaded to give up horse racing and concentrate on basketball by his father.

Jokic gave Braun credit for the team’s win after that particular game.The NBA MVP reportedly added, “He won us the game,” as reported by NBC Sports. The Nuggets never looked back after that pivotal Game 3; they won the final three games of the series to capture the championship for the first time in the 47-year history of the team.

Days prior to the start of the finals, Braun remarked, “I couldn’t have imagined a better position to be in.” “I feel incredibly fortunate to have competed and triumphed at the highest levels for the past two years.”