Even Houston Rockets star forward Kevin Durant knows the incredible basketball trajectory of Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic. In his book, Jokic has already shown enough to be on his personal list of the top five players he’s ever seen play the sport.
Durant let everyone know what he thinks of Jokic following the Rockets’ 115-101 win over Denver at Ball Arena in Denver on Saturday.
“One of the top ten players, top five players that I’ve ever seen play basketball,” Durant said of the Serbian star after the game (h/t Anthony Duckett of Sports Illustrated).
“That’s how much respect I got for these dudes. I just love his game. I love how he approaches the game. I feel like….a lot of people might disagree with me right now. But I feel like we have a similar mentality with how we approach work, just the game itself. I can sense that from far. So I’ve always had respect for him.
“And then you accomplish what you’ve accomplished in this league, gotta respect that.”
While not everyone will agree with Durant’s assessment of Denver’s franchise player, Jokic has the resume to back up KD’s claim. Jokic doesn’t seem to be someone who really cares about rankings, but he’s already built an elite body of work in the NBA and continues to add to it. So far in his stint in the league, Jokic has earned seven All-Star nods, seven All-NBA inclusions, an NBA title and three NBA Most Valuable Player awards.
And he’s still just 30 years old.
In his first 27 games in the current campaign, Jokic has put up averages of 29.4 points, 12.1 rebounds and 10.7 assists while posting an incredible efficient 66.5 effective field goal percentage.