"This is the first time in my life that the Nuggets have been a legitimate championship contender, right? Where you could go in and look at that team and truly say, I think they can win a championship," he says. "They got to the conference finals in 2009. Nobody thought they were going to win a championship this, you know, that year." 'I've been saying for years, just like, all right, something is happening here,' Malone adds.