Former UCLA men's basketball player Peyton Watson was a part of the Denver Nuggets' first-ever NBA title-winning team during his rookie season.
Denver won the 2023 NBA Finals, four games to one, against the Miami Heat with a series-clinching 94-89 victory on Monday evening at the Nuggets' Ball Arena.
With Denver's NBA title, Watson becomes the third former UCLA player in the past three seasons to have won an NBA championship – including Jrue Holiday (Milwaukee) in 2021 and Kevon Looney (Golden State) in 2022.
Since the 2016 NBA Finals, when Kevin Love helped lead the Cleveland Cavs to the championship, UCLA has seen six of its former players win an NBA title. That list includes Love with Cleveland (2016), followed by Matt Barnes and Looney with Golden State in 2017, Looney again in 2018, Norman Powell with Toronto in 2019, Holiday with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021 and Looney with his third championship in 2022.
In total, UCLA's program has seen 23 former players helped their NBA team win the NBA Finals 37 total times.
Watson, who will turn 21 in September, was a first-round NBA Draft selection by Denver in June 2022 after his freshman season at UCLA. The 6-foot-8 guard from Long Beach Poly High School played in 23 regular-season contests for the Denver Nuggets this season. Watson 3.3 points and 1.6 rebounds per game with Denver. He also averaged over 20 points per contest with the Grand Rapids Gold of the NBA G-League. Watson played in five postseason contests with Denver, including one game in the NBA Finals.
Watson has become the first NBA rookie out of UCLA since Richard Petruska in 1994 to have been a part of an NBA championship-winning team. Petruska was a second-round NBA Draft pick in 1993 and appeared in 22 games with the Houston Rockets in 1993-94. That Houston squad won the 1994 NBA Finals in a seven-game series against the New York Knicks.
Prior to Watson and Petruska, Brad Holland had been a rookie in the league with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1980. That 1980 Lakers' team took down the Philadephia 76ers in a six-game NBA Finals series to win the NBA championship.
As a freshman at UCLA in 2021-22, Watson averaged 3.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.8 assists in 32 games. Watson played a role in leading the Bruins' 2021-22 squad to a 27-8 overall record and a trip to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 in Philadelphia.
UCLA's Former Players Winning the NBA Title
| Player | NBA Team | Year |
| Willie Naulls | Boston | 1964 |
| Willie Naulls | Boston | 1965 |
| Willie Naulls | Boston | 1966 |
| Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Milwaukee | 1971 |
| Lucius Allen | Milwaukee | 1971 |
| Gail Goodrich | L.A. Lakers | 1972 |
| Keith Erickson | L.A. Lakers | 1972 |
| Henry Bibby | N.Y. Knicks | 1973 |
| Jamaal Wilkes | Golden State | 1975 |
| Bill Walton | Portland | 1977 |
| Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | L.A. Lakers | 1980 |
| Brad Holland | L.A. Lakers | 1980 |
| Jamaal Wilkes | L.A. Lakers | 1980 |
| Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | L.A. Lakers | 1982 |
| Jamaal Wilkes | L.A. Lakers | 1982 |
| Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | L.A. Lakers | 1985 |
| Jamaal Wilkes | L.A. Lakers | 1985 |
| Bill Walton | Boston | 1986 |
| Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | L.A. Lakers | 1987 |
| Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | L.A. Lakers | 1988 |
| David Greenwood | Detroit | 1990 |
| Richard Petruska | Houston | 1994 |
| Tracy Murray | Houston | 1995 |
| Jack Haley | Chicago | 1996 |
| Jelani McCoy | L.A. Lakers | 2002 |
| Jason Kapono | Miami | 2006 |
| Jordan Farmar | L.A. Lakers | 2009 |
| Trevor Ariza | L.A. Lakers | 2009 |
| Jordan Farmar | L.A. Lakers | 2010 |
| Kevin Love | Cleveland | 2016 |
| Matt Barnes | Golden State | 2017 |
| Kevon Looney | Golden State | 2017 |
| Kevon Looney | Golden State | 2018 |
| Norman Powell | Toronto | 2019 |
| Jrue Holiday | Milwaukee | 2021 |
| Kevon Looney | Golden State | 2022 |
| Peyton Watson | Denver | 2023 |