When Vince McMahon publicly attacked Denver Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke for "business malpractice" and mocked him throughout his show

Back in the 2008-2009 NBA season, WWE chairman Vince McMahon and Denver Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke got into a public dispute. The dispute was over a scheduling conflict between the NBA and WWE. Here is how the conflict originated.

On August 15, 2008, Vince McMahon originally booked the Nuggets arena, formerly known as the Pepsi Center, for May 25, 2009. McMahon planned to use the arena to host WWE Monday Night Raw. The NBA season had not yet started at that point, so there was no way of knowing for sure which teams would be playing in May.

However, Denver was considered to be one of the better teams in the West. So it was a questionable decision for Kroenke to book his team’s arena at the time.

Fast forward to May 2009 and the Nuggets made the Western Conference finals where they would face off against the eventual NBA champion LA Lakers. LA had home-court advantage, so that meant that Denver would host Games 3 and 4 at home at the Pepsi Center.

It just so happened that Game 4 fell on May 25, 2009, the same day that Monday Night Raw was scheduled at the Pepsi Center. This created a huge scheduling conflict as the WWE had reportedly already sold 10,000 tickets. Ticket prices ranged from $20 to 70$ as well. Meanwhile, Game 4 of the West finals was scheduled to start within 30 minutes of Monday Night Raw.

This prompted Vince McMahon to take shots at Stan Kroenke for not having enough faith in his team to make the West finals.

“Even though the Denver Nuggets had a strong team this year and were projected to make the playoffs, obviously Nuggets and Pepsi Center owner Stan Kroenke did not have enough faith in his own team to hold the May 25 date for a potential playoff game,” McMahon said.

It also created a bad look for the NBA as even though they were in the wrong, it was almost impossible for them to reschedule Game 4. This is because the NBA playoffs only happen once a year, while Monday Night Raw is a weekly event. The NBA also couldn’t risk disrupting the schedule of the Western finals as it would impact the schedule of the NBA Finals as well.

This didn’t make McMahon any less furious though. In a later interview with SportsCenter, McMahon even said that Stan Kroenke should be arrested for his poor business conduct.

"It's my view that Stan Kroenke should be arrested for impersonating a good businessman. Because he is not a good businessman," McMahon said.

Vince McMahon and the WWE were later given the option to relocate their show to the Denver Coliseum. This would have allowed previous ticket sales to stay valid as the event would still have taken place in Denver. However, McMahon and the WWE instead opted to host Monday Night Raw at the Staples Center, the home arena of Denver’s opponent, the LA Lakers.

McMahon later reiterated his hard feelings once again, saying that he barely received an apology for the inconvenience. He also added that Kroenke offered him the option to host Monday Night Raw on Sunday instead, which didn’t make any sense.

"They bumped us right out of the building, hardly an apology,” McMahon said.

“They didn't do anything for us at all, and the media was talking about someone has to write a check. They didn't want to write anything and they wanted to give us a Sunday night. And the name of the show is Monday Night Raw,” McMahon continued.

For more on Vince McMahon's scheduling conflict with Stan Kroenke, click here.

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Vince McMahon’s petty revenge on Stan Kroenke

WWE Monday Night Raw May 25, 2009

Vince McMahon would later get some rather petty revenge on Stan Kroenke. After claiming that Kroenke kicked the WWE out of their scheduled venue, he McMahon hosted Monday Night Raw in the Lakers’ arena. He also included a segment in the show with a Stan Kroenke impersonator who was brought out to make a mockery of Kroenke.

Later on, during the main event, McMahon took another shot at Kroenke and the Nuggets. This came in the form of a 10-man tag team wrestling match with five on each team. McMahon had a team, led by John Cena, dressed up in LA Lakers gear. Meanwhile, the other team, led by Randy Orton, was dressed up in Denver Nuggets gear.

The Lakers, of course, got the win over the Nuggets in the Monday Night Raw matchup.

In the Lakers versus Nuggets Game 4, Denver secured a comfortable 120-101 victory. However, the Nuggets eventually went on to lose the series 4-2, so Vince McMahon got the last laugh.