DENVER — First, the clichés. There were none. Instead, Emmanuel Mudiay spoke with sincere eye contact, as if the conversation weren’t an obligation, but a means to get his message across. He didn’t say what I expected to hear, but what he actually believes, and that’s pretty rare these days.

“I feel like my career is not going to be the same if I don’t win a championship,” Mudiay said. So much for leveling a 19-year-old with expectations. He embraces them, even as the Nuggets open training camp Tuesday at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

Second, the message itself. Never a mention of All-Star games or individual marks, though both are sure to come. Still a month before the rookie point guard plays his first game in the NBA, and he returned every topic of conversation to one word: championships. The all-timers he watches on Hardwood Classics because Mudiay was only an idea when they played the game?

“Isiah, Magic, Michael — they were chasing championships,” he said.

So LeBron James must be your guy, since everyone has a guy? No, Mudiay said. He’s his own guy. “Of course LeBron is going to go down as one of the greats. He’s got a couple of championships,” he said.

It was at that point Monday I resisted the opportunity to swoon, to compromise all facets of professionalism and give Mudiay a big, warm hug. It is as if the NBA gods designed the ideal personality to put a smiley face on a messy franchise, packaged him in a 6-foot-5, 200-pound body and shipped him to Pepsi Center.

The Nuggets finally have their star. We just don’t know it yet. I had to ask the folks who know him best. Mudiay seems too good to be true. Is this guy for real?

“He was the best guard in the draft,” said Nuggets great and current Southern Methodist coach Larry Brown, who signed Mudiay to a letter of intent before Mudiay chose to play one season of pro ball in China. “I really believe that.”

“Best kid I’ve ever been around,” said Kansas assistant Jerrance Howard, who helped recruit Mudiay to Southern Methodist. “He’s got tools you can’t teach.”

“He’s the real deal,” Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly said.

This is dangerous territory, pinning lofty expectations on a teenager assuming the lead role on a franchise with two straight trips to the draft lottery. But that’s how strongly the coaches and basketball minds who know Mudiay best feel about his character, drive and ability to straight-up ball out.

Now there must be patience. That’s a key here.

“There are going to be nights when we’re all going to walk out of the gym and say, ‘Wow. How did he fall to 7 (in the draft)? He was the best player on the floor tonight,'” Nuggets first-year coach Michael Malone said. “There will be other nights when we say he looked like a rookie. We expect that.”

The Nuggets can’t overextend the prodigy, who wasn’t old enough to watch Jordan except on NBA reruns, with public appearances and obligations. Down the street in LoDo, the requests have worn on 24-year-old Rockies infielder Nolan Arenado, and Mudiay’s is the kind of promising relationship you want to take slow.

But after two years of the Nuggets wandering through the NBA desert with an indifferent locker room as a guide, it’s such a relief to say this:

I feel great about the M&M Era. Malone and Mudiay seem to grasp that no level of advanced metrics can quantify the value of high character and a shared vision. Guys like Nate Robinson come cheap, but also at a cost of professionalism.

“Your actions speak louder than words,” Mudiay said.

Swoon, again.

“I think we’ll have as strong a locker room as there is in the league,” Connelly said.

Oh, the league is coming after Mudiay. Rookie lead guards are chum in a trout hatchery.

“Let’s be honest — Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, Damian Lillard, Steph Curry, Tony Parker — the list goes on and on,” Malone said. “You can’t hide if you’re a rookie.”

For that, too, Mudiay is mildly conditioned. His closest rivalries are made of blood. Older brothers Stephane and Jean-Michael took no prisoners in one-on-one battles at a Dallas hoops court he calls “The Cage.” No out-of-bounds, I assume?

“No out-of-bounds.”

“You’ve seen a WWE ring? Like a ‘Hell in the Cell’-type cage?” Mudiay added. “That’s what it is.”

Last and hardly least, Mudiay digs Colorado. So do Gallo, Wilson Chandler and Jusuf Nurkic (“Denver is cool,” Nurkic said succinctly), and that flies against the NBA’s conventional wisdom. Mudiay is deep in learning Nuggets history, even borrowing a media guide from the front office to brush up on the laurels of Fat Lever and Chris Jackson.

“The main thing is we haven’t won a championship yet,” Mudiay said.

Yet, he said, and there’s that other word again.

–

Twitter: @bypaulklee