As the closing moments of the NBA Finals counted down, and the triumphant Denver Nuggets initiated their celebration, Nikola Jokic, the inevitable Finals MVP, approached players from the opposing Miami Heat team, pulled them close, and put on a classic display of sportsmanship. While the team that becomes NBA champions usually is an unpredictable sum of skill, teamwork, determination, and luck, looking back, Nikola Jokic leading the Denver Nuggets to a title seems like destiny fulfilled.
Usually, in basketball, a team adheres to a structured arrangement. The tallest player contends for dominance near the basket. Offensively, anticipating passes for close-range scoring. Guards and wings navigate the outer perimeter, engaging in dribbling, passing, and attempting longer range shots. But Jokic excels in each of these facets. He can receive the ball beyond the three-point line, drive towards the basket, and, with deceptive eye movements, deliver a precise cross-court pass to a teammate stationed in either corner. Whether securing a defensive rebound with one hand or executing a seamless overhand pass to a teammate sprinting down the opposite end of the court, Jokic possesses an uncanny anticipation of his teammates' positions, consistently orchestrating the ball to meet them before they arrive.
Over the past two decades, the NBA has instituted regulations curbing specific defensive strategies. In response, coaches have become more adept at discerning which shots yield the highest point returns and how to optimize this era of basketball. The game's tempo has accelerated, and players have strategically spread out across the court, fast pace and three-point focus becoming pivotal concepts. Basketball analysts also emphasize the importance of "reading the floor," a phrase that oversimplifies an idea of deciphering the dynamic formations shaped by moving players and then coordinating collective actions in response.
And when it comes to “reading the floor”, no one is better than Nikola Jokic. LeBron James acknowledged this skill after the Nuggets swept the Lakers in the 2023 Western Conference Finals, "He sees plays before they happen" And on numerous occasions, Jokic has astutely identified intricate plays the opposing team is about to execute based on player positioning. In crucial moments, he guides his teammates on how to disrupt these plays. What sets him apart from other stars, is his remarkable adaptability.
For example, in the initial game of the 2023 finals, he focused on facilitating with few shot attempts in the first half, contributing ten assists as the Nuggets secured a seventeen-point lead. However, by the game's conclusion, a comfortable victory for Denver, he had amassed twenty-seven points. Despite Jokic’s movements lacking a silky smoothness like some of your favorites, the decision making, and results that follow are nearly flawless.
If you’re paying attention, witnessing Jokic’s on-court brilliance is captivating. But it’s also not the most marketable. Since Michael Jordan's second retirement in the late nineties, a few basketball stars have been hailed as the world's best player, with Jokic being latest, but arguably the least renowned among them. While basketball is inherently a sport, a competition, the NBA is a business entwined with other commercial entities, including individual players who unabashedly consider themselves brands or businesses. Notably, Jokic avoids social media, or media in general. I mean the only real interview featuring Nikola Jokic, is when appeared on his teammate, Michael Porter Jr.’s podcast for 18 minutes at the end of 2023.
Now, Denver, as the sole destination for Jokic throughout his NBA journey, stands in stark contrast to the metropolises of New York, Los Angeles, Miami or even Boston. In these cities, Jokic might have easily found himself amid the glare of mega-stardom. However, his path has been different. After spending his formative years playing professionally in Serbia, Jokic entered the NBA draft relatively unnoticed. Selected as the forty-first pick in the second round, he entered the league without much fanfare. Yet, against the odds, he carved out a remarkable career, achieving the unprecedented feat of winning the MVP award twice despite being chosen outside of the top 15.
With a physique that defied traditional basketball standards, Jokic initially puzzled some of his peers. Julius Randle. Even during the All-Star Game draft, Jokic, the reigning MVP at the time, found himself overshadowed until only he and the less acclaimed Lauri Markkanen remained. Refusing to be last pick, Jokic approached LeBron James as his name was mispronounced.
Next Season
The Nuggets commenced the 2023-24 season with four consecutive victories before facing an unexpected defeat in Minnesota. Following that game, they returned to Denver for a matchup against the Dallas Mavericks. The game against Dallas marked Denver's debut in the In-Season Tournament, an innovative addition to the NBA calendar aimed at generating early-season excitement and boosting ratings. To emphasize the occasion, the court was painted in dramatic fashion.
Moments before the tipoff, in a nightly ritual of preparation, Jokic clasped his hands together and exhaled into them. Despite being an exceedingly physical player—known for setting aggressive screens and grappling with defenders, often leaving his upper arms covered in scratches—Jokic conveys an overriding sense of finesse, or touch. A trait that is seen clearest on offense.
About three minutes into the game, following a missed jump shot by Jamal Murray, Jokic, with his left arm entwined around a defender's arm—who he both pinned and used as a leverage—rolled the ball into the hoop effortlessly off the rebound, almost as if guiding it in with his fingertips. Despite having the highest frequency of ball touches per game among current players, primarily because of the Nuggets 2-man game, Jokic seldom retains possession for long periods; his time per touch doesn't rank within the top hundred and fifty in the league. His habit of getting rid of the ball is recognizable in a common Jokic pass, where instead of gather the ball on a pass intended for him, he tips it to an open teammate for an easy bucket.
Several years back, Jokic was coached by the late Dejan Milojevic, a widely respected mentor, who was most recently a part of the Warriors coaching staff. He spent time coaching Jokic in his younger years with Mega Basket, a Belgrade-based team. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, he shared a drill he implemented with his players. In this exercise, a big man would receive the ball and then decide whether to pass or attempt a score based on the number of fingers held up by an assistant coach stationed on the sidelines. The aim of the drill was to enhance players' decision-making speed. Jokic unsurprisingly excelled at it to such a degree that they enlisted two assistant coaches positioned on opposite ends of the court. Jokic then had to scan each of them, calculate the total number of fingers shown by the pair, and then determine his move based on whether the count was odd or even. According to Coach Deki, Jokic mastered this variation of the drill as well.
Basketball has long been a prominent sport in Jokic’s homeland, dating back to at least the 1970s when Serbia was part of Yugoslavia, and the Yugoslavian team clinched two world championships. Jokic spent his childhood playing basketball in Sombor, a town in northwest Serbia. He and his siblings grew up in a modest two-bedroom apartment with their parents and grandmother, learning his early basketball fundamentals from his older brother. Both of his brothers played a significant role in shaping his skills and character, both having respective professional basketball careers, primarily in Serbia.
In 2012, at the age of 17, Nikola not only stood as the tallest sibling but also showcased the most evident talent on the basketball court. Jokic began his journey with a team in Novi Sad, slightly south of Sombor. The owner of Mega Basket at the time, took notice of Jokic’s impressive performances in the local paper and recruited him to his team, which was established to nurture young talents. This endeavor proved remarkably successful, with Mega Basket emerging as one of the leading producers of NBA draft picks in the past decade.
Despite his growing reputation locally, NBA scouts had a hard time seeing the potential. Described as "unathletic," Jokic’s physique didn't fit the conventional mold. However, a closer observation of Jokic’s abilities revealed a different story. Despite recording a relatively short vertical leap during assessments, Jokic possessed remarkable physical gifts, including advanced footwork, exceptional vision, and unmatched hands. While some may have been deterred by his unconventional body type, Jokic’s unique skills and games sense have proved undisputable.
The Nuggets' management was impressed by Jokic’s potential but had limited foresight regarding his ceiling. Opting to use their first pick of the same draft on another big man, Bosnian center Jusuf Nurkic, a skilled and promising player in his own right.
Jokic’s playing style was perplexing—he defied expectations by favoring a below-the-rim approach despite his height, and while he had a knack for controlling the game's tempo, he often did so by slowing it down. Initially, Coach Malone experimented with starting Nurkic and bringing Jokic off the bench. And later, their compatibility on the court proved challenging, leading to various lineup adjustments. It wasn't until Jokic’s second season, near Christmas, that Malone designated him as the starting center, resulting in a remarkable improvement in Denver's offense. Although Jokic wasn't always the primary scorer, the Nuggets' offensive efficiency significantly increased when he was on the floor. This pivotal moment, was a turning point in Jokic’s career, and in the franchise’s overall trajectory.
One of the most reliable methods for a basketball team to generate scoring opportunities is through constant off-ball movement, involving players cutting across the court, circling back, and setting screens. A type of motion. This demanding style of play requires immense physical effort, even from the most well-conditioned athletes, who must remain motivated to sustain it. It’s the idea of buying in to the system. However, Jokic’s prolific passing ability, combined with his quick decision-making, incentivizes his teammates to engage in this relentless movement. They understand that if they pass the ball to him, it will likely find its way back to them, or if they make a cut, more times than not he will facilitate easy scoring opportunities for them.
As Jokic spent more time playing alongside his teammates, his ability to anticipate their movements and positioning improved significantly. He developed a remarkable synergy specifically, with Jamal Murray. During the 2019-20 season, Jokic and Murray spearheaded the Nuggets' campaign in the playoffs held in the "bubble”. Engaging in a fluid exchange of the ball, they orchestrated a dynamic offensive rhythm that created ample space for scoring opportunities. While the Nuggets ultimately fell short against the Lakers that year, Murray and Jokic’s exceptional performances served as a beacon of hope during a challenging period.
In the subsequent season, however, Murray suffered a torn ACL, leaving Jokic to shoulder the team's burden alone. He came to realize that his exceptional passing ability created opportunities for him to score, as opponents hesitated to double-team him, fearing he would find the open teammate. Consequently, he began consistently scoring thirty-point games. Despite the Nuggets' inability to advance far in the playoffs without Murray, that season, Nikola Jokic earned his first MVP award.
Now, let’s revisit the 2015 NBA draft. Aaron Gordon entered the league in the same draft class as Nikola Jokic but at a much higher position, being selected as the fourth overall pick by the Orlando Magic. Despite his extreme athleticism, Gordon's tenure in Orlando was somewhat underwhelming. He found himself shouldering excessive responsibilities, a stark contrast to his role playing alongside Jokic. FIND CLIP According to Gordon, Jokic not only broadens the game but also streamlines it for his teammates, allowing them to concentrate on their strengths. Gordon attributed this not only to the diversity of Jokic’s skill set but also to the consistency of his character both on and off the court. "He's just so congruent," Gordon remarked.
In basketball, players often model their playing styles after predecessors, with the best among them improving upon their forerunners. While Jokic shares traits with numerous players, he hails from a lineage of European big men renowned for their passing abilities.
Larry Bird is also frequently mentioned alongside Jokic, possibly due to their shared attributes of passing combined with precise shooting, as well as their distinctive shooting forms. However, in many ways, Magic Johnson emerges as a more surprising yet fitting comparison, especially when it comes to passing and game control.
But at the same time, it was Jerry West who offered a different perspective, likening Jokic not to Bird or Magic but to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar due to their shared finesse on the court. When asked about these comparisons, Magic embraced them, emphasizing their shared dominance through basketball IQ and the positive impact they have on teammates.
Jokic achieved his 108th career triple-double in a game against the New Orleans Pelicans, surpassing LeBron James and Jason Kidd for fourth place on the all-time list. The next milestone on the list, third place, belongs to Magic. Following the game, Jokic took charge of his press conference, confidently addressing anticipated questions. With Murray sidelined due to injury for several weeks, Jokic assumed a larger scoring role, resulting in a surge in his shot attempts and a remarkable efficiency in scoring. Over a four-game stretch, he missed just five shots, and during a nine-game span, he made over eighty percent of his attempts—an efficiency unmatched since Wilt Chamberlain's era nearly six decades ago.
Chamberlain stands among a select group of three players to achieve the remarkable feat of winning the NBA MVP award for three consecutive seasons, with Bird and Bill Russell rounding out this exclusive trio. Yet, as Jokic approached the brink of joining this elite company last season, a spirited debate erupted among NBA commentators, oscillating between cordial analysis and data-driven discussions. The central question lingered: Could Jokic truly be considered on par with the greatest players in history without having secured a championship title? Some even speculated whether his inclusion was influenced by his ethnicity.
The focal point of these deliberations was Joel Embiid, another exceptional center. With his imposing physique and polished skill set, while possessing a sharp basketball intellect, Embiid's court vision falls short of Jokic’s ability to read and dictate the game. Additionally, Embiid tends have the ball in his hands for significantly longer possessions than Jokic. In a highly anticipated matchup last season, Embiid outperformed Jokic and ultimately claimed the coveted league MVP title. However, the Sixers' subsequent defeat in the playoffs added fuel to the ongoing debate, which delves into issues of race, reputation, and defensive strategies in the NBA.
When questioned about the controversy, Jokic graciously acknowledged Embiid's merits.
In mid-January of 2024, the Nuggets found their way to Philadelphia, where Jokic encountered Embiid for the first time this season. Embiid was already displaying a historic scoring streak, and would add to it in that matchup. The game unfolded as a close, captivating battle. Jokic posted an impressive nineteen rebounds and twenty-five points, yet Embiid stole the show with forty-one points, leading the Sixers to victory in the final moments. Despite his own stellar performance, Embiid returned the praise to Jokic following the game, "He's the finals MVP," Embiid remarked. "Until someone else takes that away."
Nikola Jokic has already experienced a remarkable career. His story is a true underdog story. A story of shattering expectations. His overall skill, and basketball IQ cannot be overstated. But it’s also his unique humility that sets him apart from other superstars, and contributes to the well-deserved title of best in world.