Christian Braun’s effort to become the second player in NBA history to win an NCAA title followed by back-to-back NBA championships was cut short on Sunday night when his Denver Nuggets were defeated 98-90 in Game 7 of a second-round Western Conference playoff series in Denver.

“This is not the emotion you want to have. “I haven’t felt this way in a long time,” said Braun, a second-year pro who started for Kansas’ 2022 NCAA championship team and then played a vital backup role on the Nuggets’ 2023 NBA championship team.

Braun, who finished his high school career at Blue Valley Northwest with Class 6A state titles as a sophomore, junior, and senior, hadn’t felt the agony of postseason defeat in a long time before Sunday.

“I never want to experience this emotion again. We’re going to practice all summer so we don’t have to feel that,” said Braun, a 6-foot-6, 200-pound guard who scored five points, three assists, three rebounds, and a block in 20 minutes for the Nuggets on Sunday night.

Braun spoke with media in front of his locker on Sunday, following his first loss in six NBA playoff series.

The Nuggets won 4-0 in the 2022-23 postseason, defeating the Timberwolves (4-1), Phoenix Suns (4-2), Los Angeles Lakers (4-0), and Miami Heat (4-1). This postseason, the Nuggets defeated the Lakers 4-1 in Round 1 before losing to Minnesota 4-3.

By winning last year, he joined Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Henry Bibby, and Billy Thompson as the only players in history to win an NCAA title and an NBA championship as a rookie. By losing on Sunday, he missed out on joining Thompson (Louisville, 1987; Lakers 1988, ’89) as the only players to win a title in their last year of college and then back-to-back championships in their first two NBA seasons. Denver would have needed to win two more series to secure the 2024 title.

“It (stinks), but I think we’re the better team,” Braun stated. “They beat us. They beat us fairly and squarely. But I think we had a great potential to go back-to-back. You don’t get that chance very frequently. It hurts, but we need to feel it.”

Minnesota, which will face Dallas in the conference finals, became the first club in NBA history to overcome a 15-point halftime hole in a playoff series game seven on Sunday. The Nuggets led by 20 in the third quarter.

“It’s inexcusable to lose a game when you are up 15 at half,” Braun stated. “We put ourselves in the best possible situation. They did an excellent job answering. They’ve got some extremely good players. They’ve got some extremely tough guys. They play excellent defense. It’s not as if we lost to a poor team. In my heart, I knew we were a superior team. We got beaten. That happens. We have to answer appropriately.

According to some pundits, the Nuggets appeared to run out of gas following their title run last year, which lasted until June.

“You are free to blame whatever you want…” “Guys are tired from last year, for whatever reason,” said Braun, who averaged 7.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game in his second season in the league. He played an average of 20.2 minutes per game off the bench in 82 games (four starts).

“I felt we had the best team in the NBA,” Braun continued. “I am proud of these people. We fought. We lost, but these guys are ready for the task. “They will respond.”

Braun stated that after taking some time off, he will be prepared to work hard on his own game this summer.

“There are many things I want to improve. “We’ll have a little more time this offseason to work on those things,” he told reporters. “It isn’t what I wanted, but it is the truth.

“I’ll be back,” he concluded.