Nikola Jokic can cap an unbelievable journey to the head of his sport by main the Denver Nuggets to a first-ever championship when the NBA Finals get underway on Thursday.
Nine years in the past, the softly-spoken Serbian centre barely precipitated a murmur of consideration when the Nuggets selected him with the forty first general choose within the draft.
That choice was so low-key that it was not even broadcast dwell; as a substitute, viewers watching the NBA draft had been proven a industrial for a well-liked fast-food chain.
The consensus was that whereas Jokic had dimension coupled with respectable passing and taking pictures skill, the doughy teen lacked the athleticism and pace to thrive on the earth’s hardest basketball league.
But over the course of the 28-year-old’s rise to the very highest echelon of the NBA, these early scouting assessments have been steadily shredded.
He received back-to-back NBA Most Valuable Player awards in 2021 and 2022, and this yr solely narrowly missed out on averaging a triple-double over the course of the common season, ending with 11.8 rebounds, 9.8 assists and 24.5 assists per recreation.
“He’s going to go down as one of the all-time great centers to ever touch a basketball,” was Kevin Durant’s verdict on Jokic after the Nuggets eradicated the Phoenix Suns within the second spherical of the playoffs.
LeBron James was equally complimentary after the Nuggets swept the Los Angeles Lakers within the Western Conference finals.
“There are certain guys in this league that play the game a certain way, a certain way that I like to play the game as well — and he’s one of them,” James stated.
“You are always off-balance when you are guarding a player like that because of his ability to score, rebound, shoot. He sees plays before they happen.
“There’s not many guys in our league like that.”
– Lacking ‘It’ issue? -Yet whereas the likes of James and Durant embrace Jokic as a member of the league’s elite, the 6ft 11in (2.11m), 284-pound (129-kilo) Serb continues to be the topic of sniping.
Some critics say his triple-double prowess is the results of “stat-padding,” whereas others accuse him of missing true star energy.
“Jokic can win this championship and no one’s going to care,” former Washington Wizards participant Gilbert Arenas stated just lately.
“Let’s just be honest. I’m sorry. He’s not going to go from where he is right now to this super megastar because he’s not doing anything kids want to see,” Arenas stated.
“It’s the players, their personality. You know Jokic is great, but he doesn’t have IT.”
Those sorts of criticisms depart Nuggets coach Michael Malone bemused.
Malone notes that Jokic’s outstanding postseason — he has averaged 29.9 factors, 13.3 rebounds and 10.3 assists in 15 video games — must quash any debate about his expertise.
“Have you seen any stat-padding out there?” Malone stated. “I’m serious, enough of the silliness. The guy is a great player.
“Give him his damn respect. Stop chopping him down at the knees. He’s a great player, and give him the respect he deserves.”
Malone nonetheless admits that Jokic was a good distance from being the completed article when he arrived within the NBA in 2014, recalling performances within the Las Vegas Summer League the place he was “300 pounds, out of shape.”
“No one — and if anybody tells you different, they’re full of shit — no one ever could have seen that he’d be a two-time MVP,” Malone stated.
“That speaks to his dedication to his craft, getting in great shape and understanding that for him to fulfill his potential, he had to work harder, and he’s done that.”
