Kroenke agreed to buy the Los Angeles Angels in a record deal, and Denver fans immediately asked why the same owner would not pay Peyton Watson.
Stan Kroenke is adding a baseball team, after Kroenke Sports & Entertainment announced Tuesday it has agreed to buy a controlling interest in the Los Angeles Angels from Arte Moreno, and ESPN reported the price at $4 billion, a record for a Major League Baseball team.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027 and needs MLB approval, but Denver did not wait to react.
Kroenke already owns the Los Angeles Rams, Colorado Avalanche, Arsenal and the Denver Nuggets, and Nuggets fans had plenty to say.
The complaint was easy to follow, since less than two weeks earlier the Nuggets sent Watson to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a sign-and-trade rather than pay him, with Watson landing a four-year, $88 million contract while Denver took back a 2031 first-round pick and a 2032 second.
So when a $4 billion purchase was landed by the same owner, fans asked where Watson's money went.
Why the Watson Trade Still Stings
Watson just had his best season, with 14.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 54 games while shooting 41.1 percent from three, and he is only 23 years old.
Denver lost him over money, and Watson said so on Michael Porter Jr.'s Curious Mike podcast.
"I remember during the summer, just going through the ebbs and flows of negotiations and talks with the team and my agents and just understanding that we had gotten to a point where Denver was between a rock and a hard place financially," Watson said, adding that everybody knew the Nuggets were facing a tax bill.
That tax bill was real, as Denver was already a second apron team with a $285 million payroll, and the projected penalty could have reached $238 million had the Nuggets kept Watson.
The money after the deal still looks tight enough to force another cut.
What Fans Are Really Asking
To be fair to Kroenke, nobody serious thinks the Angels purchase and the Watson talks came from the same bank account, since a franchise holds its value while a tax payment is just gone.
Still, the fans have a point.
A team built around Nikola Jokić, who averaged 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds and 10.7 assists in 65 games last season, has limited years left to win with him, and Jokić could technically become a free agent next offseason even if all signs point to him staying.
Every time Denver chooses the tax bill over a rotation player, the window shrinks, and the rotation without Watson now leans on a bench group that was already in place.
Watson left with class and a sincere goodbye for Denver, so none of the frustration pointed at him, and it landed on the owner instead, with a $4 billion baseball deal giving it new life.
Kroenke can obviously afford whatever he wants, which is the problem, because Denver fans want proof he will still spend on the team with the best player in the world.
