Nuggets coaches get new tattoos to celebrate championship
Nuggets Head Coach Michael Malone showed off his new ink of Maxie the Miner holding the Larry O'Brien trophy, with the help of Mike Diaz from Triple W Tattoo.
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DENVER — Nuggets Head Coach Michael Malone has a new but permanent reminder of his team's NBA championship win that he's showing off to friends and fans.
When tattoo artist Mike Diaz of Triple W Tattoo in Arvada picked up a phone call the other day, he quickly learned he was talking to some very important people in the Mile High City.
"Ryan Bowen called the shop," Diaz said.
Bowen is an assistant coach for the Nuggets. He told Diaz that he and some of the other coaches wanted to get tattoos to celebrate the championship.
Diaz said Bowen and the other coaches were going to visit another tattoo artist in town, but he felt like the artist wasn't a big Nuggets fan and didn't seem too excited about them or the designs they were looking for.
"So, Bowen said they remembered seeing the story you did about me on 9NEWS when I was offering $52.80 tattoos," Diaz said. "He said, 'Let's go to the guy offering the 5280 tattoos. He's a fan. Let's go to him.'"
> Watch the video above: Local artist offers $52.80 Nuggets tattoos
Diaz had one thought on the call.
"Sweet! This is crazy," he said. "Today is my day off, so I told them 'I have Tuesday open and I can get you guys in.' So we chatted back and forth over the last couple of days to try and nail down the designs."
Malone and player development coach Conner Griffen were tattooed Tuesday.
Bowen hasn't decided on his favorite design yet, but will be back to visit Diaz soon.
Diaz met the three men from the championship team when they visited his Arvada studio.
"Just them three came in. They're really nice guys," he said.
He said they talked shop about the Nuggets quite a bit, but he tried to stay off topic.
"I'm sure they have been bombarded with that, so I wanted to create a place for them to hang out. It's a private studio and I'm the only artist here and I have my own little setup where they can get away from the crowds. There's no traffic coming in and out of here," he said.
Diaz said he created four different designs for the Nuggets trio to try on. Malone and Griffen both picked the same design of the mascot Maxie holding the Larry O'Brien trophy.
"Bowen is torn between Maxie and the trophy," he said. "The trophy looks like the championship trophy, but instead of the ball on top, it's the Nuggets logo."
Diaz said since the story about his 5280 tattoos ran on 9NEWS, his phone has not stopped ringing.
"The past couple of days, it's been quiet and nice, but right when I got home today, the phone rang and it was TMZ Sports asking me about the coach's tattoo," he said.
He said he has tattooed about 20-30 fans with $52.80 Nuggets tattoos so far, and his schedule outlook has 40-50 more Nuggets fans coming in over the next month to sit in his chair to celebrate the win with permanent art.
Source: 9News.com KUSA
