Former Denver Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth minced no words when he spoke of his firing by the franchise, despite the team winning their maiden NBA championship in 2023.
2025 was a tumultuous year for the Nuggets after both Booth and head coach Michael Malone were fired. The shocking move put Denver firmly in the spotlight. In his recent sit-down, the former GM spoke in detail about his exit.
Calvin Booth Names 4 Factors that Contributed to his Firing as Nuggets’ GM
Speaking to Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin O’Connor in his latest, Booth looked at four main reasons that cost him his role with the franchise. He called the first the ‘Nikola Jokić effect’, where the success of the team’s superstar hid the tension underneath.
The second was the friction between him and Malone over roster construction. While the head coach wanted experience in the form of veteran names, Booth believed that young players needed to be developed. The disagreement spread across the organization, eventually forcing Nuggets president Josh Kroenke to fire the two.
Booth also mentioned ownership as one of the reasons. “Whether it’s Mark Warkentien or Tim [Connelly] or Masai [Ujiri], there’s always gonna come a point where they don’t value executives like that,” he said. “I’ll probably disagree with their take on executives, but who am I? They’ve been so successful, so maybe it’s the right way to operate.”
The fourth reason saw him say, “I believe I made it look too easy. Anybody really good at something, when they make it look easy, that was really, really hard to get to.”
“It took a lifetime’s worth of playing basketball, coaching basketball, having conversations, and scouting. For me to go in there right away, assemble a championship team, win a championship.”
Booth’s move ahead of the team’s championship run saw him add wing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to the fold. He later acquired guard Bruce Brown and aggressively pursued Christian Braun. The series of moves, coupled with Jokić’s stellar season, made history.
After his exit, the new-look front office, led by Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer, made a series of moves. They traded Michael Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson, re-acquired Brown, and added center Jonas Valančiūnas and Tim Hardaway Jr. to add more depth.
On the season front, the Nuggets have blown hot and cold. With their superstar big man out for a few games, they have been inconsistent, losing two of their four games after the All-Star break. They are currently fourth in the West with a 37-22 record.
