Christian Braun’s past 14 months have been pretty special.
On April 4, 2022, he posted a double-double and won the NCAA men’s basketball national championship with the Kansas Jayhawks in the largest comeback win in title history. Later that summer, the Denver Nuggets drafted Braun with the No. 21 pick. And almost a year later, the rookie guard played a critical role in the Nuggets’ Game 3 win over the Miami Heat before Denver sealed its first-ever NBA championship Monday night.
Braun averaged just 5.8 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.0 steals in 81.6 total minutes during the Finals, but the title win secured his spot in an exclusive group of NBA players. Braun became only the fifth player in league history to win an NBA and NCAA championship in consecutive seasons, and he’s the first to do it since 1987.
Here are the others, two of whom were eventually inducted into to the Hall of Fame.
Bill Russell — San Francisco and Boston Celtics (1956-57)
Russell just couldn’t stop winning. He joined the Celtics in 1956 after back-to-back NCAA championships with San Francisco and immediately won the NBA Finals in 1957 over the St. Louis Hawks (who originally drafted Russell No. 2 overall before trading him to the Celtics). Russell averaged 13.3 points and 22.9 rebounds per game during those Finals. He went on to win 10 more championships with Boston and holds the record for most titles for a single player with 11.
Henry Bibby — UCLA and New York Knicks (1972-73)
Bibby won three NCAA titles during his time with John Wooden at UCLA before the Knicks took him No. 58 in the 1973 draft. He averaged just 3.3 points and 7.2 minutes per game during the playoffs, but Bibby is still a champion. Bibby played 10 total years in the league, including stints with the Philadelphia 76ers, then-New Orleans Jazz and then-San Diego Clippers.
Magic Johnson — Michigan State and Los Angeles Lakers (1979-80)
Johnson won the first of his five NBA championships the year after his Spartans defeated Larry Bird and Indiana State in the 1979 NCAA title game. After being drafted No. 1 overall by the Lakers, he led Los Angeles alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jamaal Wilkes to the team’s first championship since 1972. Johnson averaged 21.5 points, 11.2 rebounds, 8.7 assists and 2.7 steals in the Lakers’ 4-2 series win over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Billy Thompson — Louisville and Los Angeles Lakers (1986-87)
Thompson joined the Lakers during Johnson’s prime title-winning years under coach Pat Riley. Los Angeles drafted Thompson with the. No. 19 pick the same year he led Louisville to the 1986 NCAA championship. While Thompson averaged almost 15 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists per game during his senior season, he only averaged 12.9 minutes per game during his rookie season and scored only 5.6 points per game when the Lakers won the NBA Finals. He won another championship the following year, but only played nine games with a leg injury.
