Nikola Jokic: Can Joker be top 10 player in basketball history?

Only one person can stop Nuggets center Nikola Jokic from becoming one of the top 10 players in basketball history.

Who is that person? Well, in our dusty old cowtown, we fondly call him the Joker.

Jokic loves basketball, but hates saying goodbye to the peace and comfort of his home in Serbia for the hoopla and hassle of being the best player in the NBA. So here’s my advice: Cherish every minute he wears a Nuggets uniform.

“Will Niklola be a guy that plays 20 years in the NBA? No. I’d be shocked if he played 20 years in the NBA,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone told me, as we stood outside the Denver locker room on the eve of training camp.

At the top of his game at age 28, Jokic might not be done getting better. And for those of you keeping score at home: While leading the Nuggets to 16 victories during the NBA playoffs, capped by beating the Miami Heat in the Finals, he was even more dominant on the court last season than the prior two years, when Joker was named the league’s most valuable player.

“Quote me now: “He should’ve won his third (MVP),” Nuggets guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope said. “But he wanted something a little more better, I guess. We got the Larry O’Brien Trophy.”

After winning their first championship in franchise history, the Nuggets will be contenders so long as Jokic doesn’t grow weary from the grind of being the most reluctant celebrity in the NBA. What makes him tick is sometimes as difficult to comprehend as the crazy geometry of his no-look passes. The American dream of being rich and famous? It holds no appeal for Joker.

“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t love the game,” Malone said. “That doesn’t mean he doesn’t love coming back to Denver to try to win another championship.”

His current contract runs through 2028, when Jokic will be 33 years old, still young enough to make the Nuggets a contender or lead his national team to an Olympic gold medal. But when his current $276 million deal is done, nobody who knows him would be surprised if Jokic went back to Serbia and never played another game of professional basketball.

Any dreams the Nuggets entertain of building a dynasty must be based on one simple, foundational idea: Make basketball seem less like work and more like family for Jokic.

“Knowing Nikola, leaving home to come back to Colorado is always hard. Nikola is a homebody. He loves being in Serbia. He loves being with his mom, his dad, his family, his friends and his horses. So coming back here is a huge step for him,” Malone said.

“When you think about how he didn’t get back to Serbia until June 16th or 17th, after the championship parade in Denver, it’s a quick turnaround for Nikola to get back to the NBA again. That’s what I’m worried about. Recharging his batteries.”

During the long, 82-game grind that awaits before the quest to repeat can begin in earnest, the motivation for Jokic won’t be to enter the conversation for GOAT status, or even to show voters how wrong they were to award the MVP to Philadelphia center Joel Embiid.

I asked Jokic what brings him joy in getting back to work. “Just to see the guys,” he replied. “I think the people are making the journey interesting and fun.”

While it might sound corny, it really is more about the journey than the trophy for Jokic.

“Yes, we won the championship. But more important for Nikola is who he won that championship with,” Malone said. “He really likes the guys in the locker room. So there’s definitely joy in him coming here. He’s not disgruntled, ticked off and just trying to get through the season.”

Many of the same pundits who pushed for Embiid to win MVP over Jokic were perplexed by his reluctance to show any public display of affection for the O’Brien Trophy, as well as his initial disappointment upon discovery that a victory parade through the streets of Denver would delay his summer vacation in Serbia.

After watching how Jokic enjoyed celebrating the championship with the everyday people of Colorado, however, a friend of Malone’s made a T-shirt to salute the simple pleasures that make the No. 1 basketball player in the world happy.

The T-shirt’s graphics were inspired by words from Joker himself and the warmth he feels from peeps in a city that will love him forever: “I said I don’t like parade. I effing like parade.”

So long as Denver can make basketball more like family than work, Joker will be one of us.

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Nikola Jokic: Can Joker be top 10 player in basketball history?

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