THE FORGOTTEN MVP: SALUTE ‘THE JOKER’ AMID THE NBA’S FAKERS AND JAKERS
Nikola Jokic doesn’t demand trades, seek attention, live on Twitter or fight for load management, but there’s a reason he might become only the fourth player to win three straight MVP awards
If Nikola Jokic navigated his horse through a typical American city, as he does from a funky buggy back in Serbia — yeah, maybe he’d be recognized. But probably not. His low profile is an oddity of sporting life, in that he’s positioned to win the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award for the third straight season. He’d join Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Larry Bird in an improbable fraternity. He would one-up Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Magic Johnson.
This man should be starring in commercials, followed by paparazzi, saluted on murals. Yet they only got around to unveiling one last week in Denver, where he has played eight stellar seasons for the Nuggets, and only after 600 locals had petitioned the mayor. This man should have been front and center in the All-Star Game, captaining one of the teams and choosing players on Sunday night, instead waiting through the picks of James and Giannis Antetokounmpo — Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Kyrie Irving, Ja Morant, Luka Doncic, Donovan Mitchell — until Jokic approached James on the stage with a shoulder-hugging reminder that he and Utah ballot-stuffer Lauri Markkanen were the last players left.
Would the two-time defending MVP be stuck with the agonizing playground stigma, as the final draftee? Would he be Mr. Irrelevant, NBA version? Wasn’t he already being disrespected? At last, James selected Jokic for Team LeBron, saying, “I’m going with Mr. Triple-Double, The Joker.” TNT’s Ernie Johnson, the host of this inaugural pre-game draft, noted that Jokic was the “first player in the history of the All-Star Game to be a starter on his birthday,” his 28th. Jokic responded as he had during earlier introductions, vaguely interested in these proceedings in downtown Salt Lake City, staring blankly and pretending to chew on something.
Never mind that he had no gum, amid lukewarm applause in Vivant Arena. Was it any shock he was iced out most of the night, shooting just four times in 20 minutes, setting up LeBron for a thunderous dunk in one of his six assists, before handing the game to Irving — James’ political pawn in free agency this summer — and fading out as Kyrie, Embiid and Jaylen Brown took most of Team LeBron’s shots? Again, he’s the two-time MVP, and they treated him like he didn’t belong. It figures. The reception was on-brand.
“I would not draft myself, either,” he said afterward of his pre-game wait. “I’m not meant for this game.”
Translation: He’s not into the b.s.
The problem with Jokic, though he’ll never consider it one, is that he doesn’t draw attention to himself beyond his wonderment on the basketball court. He doesn’t demand trades upon the slightest inconvenience. He doesn’t blow off multiple games to manage his minutes load, the newest way to insult ticket-buying consumers. He doesn’t defend his right to continually form superteams, as Kevin Durant did Saturday. Nor does he defiantly trumpet his desire to play whenever and wherever he pleases, as Irving did. Nor is he the topic of Adam Silver’s flip-flop concerning load management, a concession that now forgives players who miss games to rest — after criticizing them for the practice not long ago — in the act of a commissioner who wants a new collective bargaining agreement soon to exploit a media bidding war involving networks and streamers.
In an age of player empowerment/entitlement and superteam hysteria, all Jokic does is play the game, establish new levels of statistical standards, pass better than any big man ever, lead the league in triple-doubles and usually head home with a victory — 41 this season, against 18 losses, for a team that leads the formidable Western Conference and might steal a league championship. He doesn’t look the part of a superhero, hardly chiseled or streamlined, slogging down the court when he’s fatigued. A dunk? A ballboy might put him to shame, let alone Mac McClung. But in a sport of style, showmanship, acrobatics and self-promotion, Jokic is a daily reminder that fundamentals, footwork and being one mental step ahead of the opposition on every play — the human mind, ladies and gentlemen — can thrive amid Irving’s toxicity, Durant’s wandering eyes and the many existential problems of a league turned daffy.
Just recently, the man affectionately known as The Joker — better him than tennis great Novak Djokovic, who is far less likable — realized he needed to step up his fashion game to be noticed. With the Nuggets drawing national TV attention, the network pre-game shows are checking out what Jokic is wearing. And there he was, with a shirt tinted orange and brown under a peach sport jacket, a baller watch on his wrist.
“Maybe I wanted to look more serious,” Jokic said of his wardrobe upgrade. “People perceive you differently, people approach you differently. At the end of the day, maybe a more serious sponsorship contract will come, just because of your appearance and just because you look professional and represent yourself in the right way. I think it's a nice change in my life. The way you come to the game helps both with the brand and with you, especially since I’ve already won (MVP) twice.”
Chances are, he’ll never be half as noticed or acclaimed in this country as James, Durant and Steph Curry. Part of that is where he plays, in a forgotten time zone. Part of that is his concept of an NBA lifestyle, antithetical to his see-me, hear-me, read-my-tweets brethren. And part of it, I must say, is a hint of xenophobia. The basketball mobs should be acknowledging that European players — Jokic, Antetokounmpo, Doncic — have surpassed the American elite as the league’s best players. Giannis has won two MVPs. Jokic has won two. Doncic should end up with more. They play the game the right way. They relate to fans the right way. Doncic, just 23 and the author of an unprecedented stat line (60 points, 21 rebounds, 10 assists) in December, was quick to mention Jokic when asked if he gave himself a chance to become the sport’s greatest European player.
“It’s a possibility, but you have guys like Giannis and Jokic,” he said. “It’s tough. You’ve got some really, really good players.”
They ARE today’s NBA. As it is, Jokic is the first player ever to amass more than 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 500 assists in a season. Since signing the largest contract in league history last summer — five years, $264 million — he has not demanded a trade, unlike the disruptive Irving and white-flag-waving Durant, but has maintained his understated dominance and numbing efficiency. He is averaging 24.7 points (on 63.2 percent shooting), 11.5 rebounds and 10.1 assists. He leads in advanced metrics categories, too: win shares, player efficiency ratings, plus/minus and value over replacement player. He’s on pace to become the first player to average at least 20 points with a true shooting percentage above 69 percent, a newfangled stat with free throws factored. He is unstoppable, his passing skill a melding of art and magic, and the Nuggets are a force when he and a healthy Jamal Murray are working the pick-and-roll better than any duo since Karl Malone and John Stockton.
It was good to hear Mitchell say what everyone should have been saying. “I don’t know if you’ve all been watching what Jokic’s been doing. It’s f—ing outrageous, to be honest,” he said. “I don’t know how many people have won it three times in a row, but he’s otherworldly right now.”
Praise the workingman who got lost in the usual NBA circus. There was Durant, en route to the Phoenix Suns after escaping a disastrous superteam attempt in Brooklyn, claiming the league somehow benefits when rosters are blown up by superstar upheaval. In truth, fans are tired of it, but Durant isn’t listening. “I don't think it's bad for the league,” he said. “It's bringing more eyes to the league, more people are more excited. The tweets that I get; the news hits that we got from me being traded, Kyrie being traded; it just brings more attention to the league and that's really what rakes the money in, when you get more attention. So, I think it's great for the league, to be honest.”
His partner in failed superteam crime, Irving, naturally concurred. He has dismissed the ideal of competitive integrity, of showing up for his teammates, the fans and the people who sign his paychecks. Doesn’t matter. Irving was voted in as an All-Star starter. “It’s a bad situation. Why doesn't anyone have the ability to ask for trades? That's my question,” he said, in the early stages of a tandem with Doncic in Dallas. “When did it become terrible to make great business decisions for yourself and your happiness and peace of mind? Not every employer you're going to get along with, so if you have the chance to go somewhere else and do it legally, I don't think there's a problem with it.”
He also fired back at critics of load management. “I don't know who created the term ‘load management’ or guys sitting out games or this narrative that continues to play on about star players or guys not being available. I don't know who started the narrative, but it's completely run amok,” Irving said. “I think it's dehumanized some of us in terms of just the way we prepare ourselves day-to-day. This is a 24/7 job. We have cameras on us all the time. It's a high-level, combative sport. It's very aggressive.”
Poor babe. He should try fighting a war or wearing a police badge sometime. He’d come crawling back to his NBA life. “Speculation and narratives is what makes this entertainment kind of seem a little bit more important or more of a priority than it actually is," Irving went on. “Like, it's my life. It's not just a dream that everybody can gossip about. ... When you work as hard as I do or anyone else in a specific profession, I feel like you should have the liberty and the freedom to go where you're wanted, where you're celebrated and where you feel comfortable.”
It’s also a league that charges hefty prices for tickets. We’d expect Irving not to care about a family of four that spends hundreds of dollars and plans ahead for a particular game, only to see a star player sit out. But Silver has sprained his neck while U-turning on a sensitive topic, siding with the players as a March 30 deadline approaches for a new CBA. Now he won’t “buy into” the truth that load management hurts the league. Seems the commissioner is smelling billions instead of catering to the fans.
“I hesitate to weigh in on an issue as to whether players are playing enough because there is real medical and scientific data about what's appropriate," Silver said. “Sometimes, to me, the premise of a question as to whether players are playing enough suggests that they should be playing more — that, in essence, there should be some notion of just get out there and play. Having been in the league for a long time, having spent time with a lot of some of our great legends, I don't necessarily think that's the case.
“The world that we used to have where it was just, ‘Get out there and play through injuries,' for example, I don't think that's appropriate. Clearly, I mean, at the end of the day, these are human beings — many of you talk to and know well — who are often playing through enormous pain, who play through all kinds of aches and pains on a regular basis. The suggestion, I think, that these men, in the case in the NBA, somehow should just be out there more for its own sake, I don't buy into.”
Nine times, Michael Jordan played all 82 regular-season games. He didn’t miss a game after returning from his ill-fated baseball career, in March 1995, until winning a final title for the Chicago Bulls on June 14, 1998. It was in Utah where he played through illness. It was in Utah where he hit his final jumpshot, then left his wrist suspended in air, through the turmoil of an organization he guided and willed to six championships.
In the same arena, we heard too much over the weekend about the phony benefits of trades and rest. We should feel gratified that Nikola Jokic was there, in the spirit of playing the game and finding the open man and not throwing a hissy fit as the next-to-last starter picked.
It’s time to salute him, and his new wardrobe, and hope he ends the seasons of Irving and Durant in May. Then he can ride his horse across America, to the belated roars of true basketball aficionados.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.