DeAndre Jordan Wins His First NBA Championship With Denver

DeAndre Jordan is an NBA champion at last. The vegan center won the first title of his 15-season career on Monday night as the Denver Nuggets beat the Miami Heat 94-89 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals to take the series 4-1.

It was a first championship for the franchise too, after 47 seasons in the NBA. Nikola Jokić scored 28 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in the decider and was voted Finals MVP unanimously, while Denver survived a horrible shooting night from three-point range, missing 20 of their first 22 attempts, according to the series record.

Jordan, 34, joined Denver last summer as the veteran backup behind Jokić. He has done just about everything else in the game: three All-NBA teams, an All-Star selection in 2017, two rebounding titles and Olympic gold in Rio. A ring was the one thing missing, and he finally has it.

He went vegan in 2018, and he did it overnight. He explained the decision on his own plant-based cooking show, Cooking Clean, as VegNews reported:

One day, cold turkey, I just was like, 'This is what I'm doing.' It's been great for me ever since … Once you educate yourself a lot on what you're putting in your body and where the protein is actually coming from, [going vegan] was an easy decision for me.

The planet was part of it as well, and he has said he wanted to have some impact on how we treat the environment. A normal day starts with a JUST Egg scramble loaded with spinach, mushrooms, onions and tomatoes, followed by a protein shake after practice, he told Great Vegan Athletes. He admits to the odd cheat meal: "I also love cookies."

Jordan joins a growing list of plant-based champions in the league. JaVale McGee won back-to-back titles with Golden State and a third with the Lakers, Chris Paul led Phoenix to the Finals in 2021, and Nike even built an advert around Kyrie Irving's plant-based diet.

No meat, no problem.