Nikola Jokic has not been a three-time NBA MVP by suprise. The Nuggets star once again proved himself to be one of the most complete players in history in his team’s overtime victory on the Nets’ court (139-144). He did so with a formidable performance, the first time someone has done something like this since Wilt Chamberlain did it almost 60 years ago. The Serbian’s performance was incredible.
The center killed the Nets with an immense game in which he scored 29 points (9/16 2-pointers and 11/13 free throws), 18 rebounds (6 offensive) and 16 assists in the 41 minutes he was on the court. He became the second player in NBA history to reach those totals in a game after the legendary Wilt Chamberlain, an extraterrestrial in his time.
Nikola Jokic gives a masterclass in the last game against Brooklyn Nets
No one has more 20+15+15 games in 40 years
To put Jokic’s numbers into perspective, it is enough to point out that in the last 40 years no one has more games than him with at least 20 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists. He has done it eight times and the next, paradoxically, is his current teammate, the veteran Russell Westbrook, who has six such games. In fact, the Nuggets star has more games with those stellar statistics than all the players currently active.
We competed against a great team like the Nuggets who have an incredible player who today put on an incredible performance
His thing is brutal and this time his victim was the Nets, coached by Spaniard Jordi Fernandez, who knows Nikola Jokic very well, having coached him as an assistant with the Nuggets from 2016 to 2022. and was still fascinated by his performance and the way he dominates the game: “We competed against a great team like the Nuggets who have an incredible player who today put on an incredible performance,” said the Catalan coach of the Nets, emphasizing the work of the Serbian.
Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic (15), of Serbia, shoots against Brooklyn Nets’ Dorian Finney-Smith (28) and Cam Thomas, left, during the third quarter of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, in New York.
Nobody, not even someone who knows him so well, could deny that it was Jokic who tipped the scales for the victory to fly from the Nets’ court: “Obviously, his team puts the ball in Nikola’s hands and that’s why he controls the game and doesn’t commit turnovers,” said Jordi Fernandez, who was full of praise for his former pupil.
A stellar start to the season
He is undoubtedly one of the most complete players in NBA history and is proving it with a brutal start to the season. These are his numbers in the four games he has played for Denver so far: 16 pts, 12 reb and 13 assists; 41 pts, 9 reb and 4 assists; 40 pts, 10 reb and 4 assists; and 29 pts, 18 reb and 16 assists. His averages of almost a triple-double per game are brutal: 31.5 points, 12.2 rebounds and 9.2 assists.
If he continues in this vein, it is not too much to say that this campaign could achieve his fourth MVP award after those won in 2021, 2022 and 2023, which would allow him to equal two other legends such as Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James, who won it four times. And he would only have above him in that eternal glory three players: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (6), Bill Russell (5) and Michael Jordan (5).
