A champagne diet is in order for Aaron Gordon and Zeke Nnaji, who became the most recent former Arizona Wildcats to win an NBA championship on Monday after the top-seeded Denver Nuggets cruised by the eighth-seeded Miami Heat in five games.
Gordon — who averaged 14 points and 7.4 rebounds per game in the NBA Finals alongside Finals MVP Nikola Jokic — and Nnaji are the first Wildcats not named Andre Iguodala to win an NBA championship as players in seven years.
Here’s a list of every UA player to win an NBA championship as a player:
Chicago’s Jud Buechler, left, attempts to dunk the ball against the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, center, and Eddie Jones at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 1997.
Jud Buechler
Number of championships: 3
Team: Chicago Bulls (1996-98)
What they did: Buechler was a reserve forward during the second three-peat of the Michael Jordan era in Chicago.
Chicago's Steve Kerr celebrates after the Bulls beat the Utah Jazz 90-86 in Game 6 to win the NBA championship on Friday, June 13, 1997, in Chicago. Kerr hit a shot with five seconds left that put the Bulls ahead for good in the game.
Steve Kerr
Number of championships: 5
Teams: Chicago Bulls (1996-98), San Antonio Spurs (1999, 2003)
What they did: Kerr etched his name in NBA Finals lore in the 1997 Finals, knocking down a midrange shot at the top of the key to beat the Utah Jazz and seal the second title of Chicago’s second three-peat. Joked Kerr, to thousands of fans in Chicago during the Bulls’ championship celebration: “When we called timeout with 25 seconds to go, we went into the huddle and Phil (Jackson) told Michael, ‘Michael, I want you to take the last shot.’ Michael told Phil, ‘You know, Phil, I don’t really feel comfortable in these situations, so maybe we ought to go in another direction. Why don’t we go to Steve?’ So I thought to myself, ‘Well, I guess I gotta bail Michael out again.’ The shot went in, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.” After his time with the Bulls, Kerr was a bench guard for the Spurs under legendary head coach Gregg Popovich.
Sean Elliott (32) and his teammates celebrate the San Antonio Spurs' victory over the New York Knicks in Game 5 of the 1999 NBA Finals. It was the first championship in Spurs history.
Sean Elliott
Number of championships: 1
Team: San Antonio Spurs (1999)
What they did: The Tucson native averaged 11.2 points and 4.3 rebounds in 50 games during a shortened, lockout-influenced season. San Antonio — led by the formidable frontcourt of Tim Duncan and David Robinson — beat the Knicks in five games.
Brian Williams, later known as Bison Dele, helped the Bulls win the NBA title in 1997.
Bison Dele
Number of championships: 1
Team: Chicago Bulls (1997)
What they did: Formerly known as Brian Williams, the former All-Pac-10 big man posted 7.0 points and 3.7 rebounds per game off the bench. Dele then played two more seasons with the Detroit Pistons.
From left, the Los Angeles Lakers' Jordan Farmar, Luke Walton and Andrew Bynum react to a turnover by the Boston Celtics late in the fourth quarter in Game 3 of the NBA Finals at the TD Bank North Garden on Wednesday, June 8, 2010.
Luke Walton
Number of championships: 2
Team: Los Angeles Lakers (2009, ’10)
What they did: Walton was drafted by the Lakers late in the Kobe-Shaq era, and by the time L.A. returned to contending for championships, the former Arizona point forward had a minimal role.
The Miami Heat’s LeBron James, left, and the Dallas Mavericks’ Jason Terry react during the second half of Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Tuesday, June 7, 2011, in Dallas.
Jason Terry
Number of championships: 1
Team: Dallas Mavericks (2011)
What they did: The former NBA Sixth Man of the Year averaged 18 points and shot 49.4% from the field — 39.3% from 3-point range — against a LeBron James-led Miami Heat team.
Golden State Warriors guard Andre Iguodala responds to a question during a news conference following Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, in Cleveland, Wednesday, June 17, 2015.
Andre Iguodala
Number of championships: 4
Team: Golden State Warriors (2015, ’17, ’18, ’22)
What they did: Despite James dominating the NBA Finals in 2015 while averaging 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds and 8.8 assists in six games, Iguodala was named NBA Finals MVP — the only ex-Wildcat to accomplish that feat — for shouldering the responsibility of guarding the then-Cavaliers star.
The Cleveland Cavaliers' Richard Jefferson lays the ball in the basket against the Toronto Raptors in Cleveland, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016.
Richard Jefferson
Number of championships: 1
Team: Cleveland Cavaliers (2016)
What they did: After falling short of winning an NBA championship with the New Jersey Nets, Jefferson won his only championship with the Cavaliers, averaging 5.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals in seven games. Cleveland overcame a 3-1 series deficit to dethrone Golden State, which had set an NBA record for most wins in a regular season (73-9).
Former Arizona Wildcat Channing Frye holds his daughter after his final NBA game on April 9. Frye played 13 seasons in the league, averaging 8.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.
Channing Frye
Number of championships: 1
Team: Cleveland Cavaliers (2016)
What they did: Like his former UA teammate Jefferson, Frye was a contributor off the bench for the Cavs’ frontcourt. He averaged 7.5 points and 3.6 rebounds.
Former Arizona Wildcat Zeke Nnaji shoots for Denver in the second half of a game in April.
Zeke Nnaji
Number of championships: 1
Team: Denver Nuggets (2023)
What they did: The former first-round draft pick didn’t play in the NBA Finals, but he did appear in four games this postseason, including three in the second round against the Phoenix Suns.
Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon dunks the ball against the Miami Heat during Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday, June 9, 2023, in Miami.
Aaron Gordon
Number of championships: 1
Team: Denver Nuggets (2023)
What they did: A decade after signing with the UA as a five-star small forward, the high-flying Gordon — also known as “Mr. 50” for a perfect dunk contest score — won his first-ever title as the frontcourt counterpart to Jokic. Gordon’s 14 points per game in the NBA Finals are a career-high for him in the playoffs. In Game 4 on Friday, Gordon dropped 27 points on 11-for-15 shooting from the field, to go with seven rebounds and six assists.
Chicago Bulls legend, Scottie Pippen, said that his former teammate, Michael Jordan “was horrible to play with."
