Nikola Jokic’s insane run in the 2020s has sparked some uncomfortable conversations for people around the NBA, especially amongst the crowd who grew up watching elite centers dominate the game in a different way.
With three MVPs in five years, two second-place finishes in the other two (which were arguably robberies), four All-NBA First-Team nominations in five seasons, a Finals MVP and being the leader in total points, rebounds, assists and steals this decade, Jokic has easily cemented himself as the best player in the 2020s. There’s no debating that.
While many people argued that last season was the best of his career, as he became the third player in the history of the league to average a triple double in a season, he’s somehow outdoing himself this time around, averaging a 29.6/12.8/11.1 triple double while shooting an astonishing 62.6% from the field, 43.4% from distance and 85.3% at the charity stripe. He’s won two Western Conference Player of the Week honors as a result.
Where the questions arise is when Jokic gets compared to the all-time greats like Shaquille O’Neal, Wilt Chamberlain and others. While his one championship is reason to keep him below some of those other guys who have won, three, four, five championships, the eye test says otherwise.
People around the league have taken note, and they’re not afraid to throw him with, or even above, some of those NBA legends who dominated the paint for decades. One of those people is Stan Van Gundy, a longtime NBA head coach who now spends his days calling games as a color analyst for Amazon Prime.
Van Gundy appeared on “The Zach Lowe Show” recently, and when the two were talking about how Jokic is their early-season MVP to this point, Lowe brought up the take that Jokic “might be the best offensive player in the history of the NBA.” Van Gundy gave him one better.
“He might be the best player in the history of the NBA,” Van Gundy said.
It’s not like this is some random off the corner saying this. Van Gundy has spent the last 30 years in or around the NBA, mainly as a head coach, and won the Eastern Conference title in 2009 when he was the head coach of the Orlando Magic. His career record as a head coach is 554-425 and he is also regarded as one of the best broadcasters in the league.
While this is something that Nuggets fans have been shouting from the mountaintop for the last few years, other people around the league have tried to come up with a slew of different narratives to discredit the greatness of Nikola Jokic. As he gets better and better every single season, and consistency puts the nuggets in a prime position to compete for an NBA title year in and year out, it’s getting more difficult for those people to ignore his greatness.
