Nikola Jokic is knocking on the door of being one of the very best to ever do it, and it’s making some former players wildly uncomfortable.
Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets shocked the Oklahoma City Thunder, stealing Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals 121-119. Jokic finished with an absurd 42 points and 22 rebounds, and it’s hard to argue that the Nuggets are not title favorites after seeing the performance.
For the fifth season in a row, Jokic will finish in the top two in MVP voting. He might not win, as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the favorite to take home his first Michael Jordan Trophy, although Jokic finished with a historically great season.
If he can drag Denver to the Finals, through the mighty Thunder, there’s a case he is a top-ten player ever, although he might already be one.
Photo by Joshua Gateley/Getty ImagesChandler Parsons isn’t ready to give Jokic his flowers
Only Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Michael Jordan have won more MVP awards than Jokic. Granted, all of them boast multiple championships, but the lone title is the only thing holding Jokic back from being a top-ten player ever.
Chandler Parsons doesn’t want fans to get ahead of themselves.
“He is a one-time champion,” he argued. “You get a couple more of them chips, and again, he could win MVP this year, technically. He’s not going to. But we always talk about this as probably the best statistical year and best season for a runner-up.
“Again, you’re going to go back to Kareem and the old guys back in the day that had better resumes technically. But the guy, no matter what he is, 10, 15, 20, he is one of the greatest players we’ve ever seen.”
If the Nuggets shock the Thunder, who had one of the best regular seasons ever, then Parsons might be ready to have those talks.
“You go ahead and you knock off a number one seed like the Thunder, and you go and put yourself in a position to win the championship this year,” he added. “Then I think it’s a no-doubter. There are guys like Kareem, Wilt, Shaq, there are big-time centers that have a hell of a resume.”
Of course, Parsons might be trying to avoid a difficult conversation that a lot of former players are not ready for.
Who Jokic pass would in all-time rankings
In recent years, Jokic, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and LeBron James have built their all-time cases. Right now, most fans would agree that the ten best players are, in any order, James, Jordan, Abdul-Jabbar, Magic, Duncan, Russell, Wilt, Bird, Hakeem, Kobe, and Shaq. You can generally pick any of those ten, and fans wouldn’t bicker too much.
However, Durant, Curry, and Jokic all have a case. Does that boot Bird out? What about Shaq? Kobe Bryant has a cult following, but he only has one MVP and only two rings as a true first option, and his bad years were really bad.
Parsons will readily admit that Jokic is doing things that have never been seen before, but is not yet certain about him being an all-time great.
“This dude can do it all,” he finished. “This dude is a different style of game than any of those guys. He’s a point forward center. You play through him. He’s unbelievable. You see vision, and seeing it makes everyone around him better. It’s truly unbelievable.
“His stat lines are just disgusting, and they don’t even shock me anymore. It’s just become the norm. And we’re getting numb to his greatness and his brilliance. So I don’t know if he’s top 10 yet. I don’t know if he’s top 15 yet, but he’s unbelievable.”
By the time current greats like Jokic, James, Durant, Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and perhaps even Luka Doncic hand up their sneakers, the top-20 all-time player list will look vastly different than it did ten years ago, and for every new player added, a legend will have to take a back seat, causing some uncomfortable conversations.