Someone asked Nikola Jokic if he’s becoming more serious as he enters his 10th season in the NBA. In classic Joker deadpan humor, he replied, “Why so serious?” He paused to admire his genius line from the movie “The Dark Knight” before continuing his response during his nine-minute session with the media.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure if I’m that serious or not. Maybe a little bit. I’m older,” said the Nuggets center, who already has three league MVP trophies and one NBA championship trophy on his resume before the age of 30. He posted historically great numbers during the 2023-24 season. He ranked 10th in in points, fourth in rebounds and third in assists per game. He became the second player in history to have at least 2,000 points, 900 rebounds and 700 assists in a season. The great Oscar Robertson was the only other player to accomplish the feat.
Jokic understands that life is too short to be caught up in the seriousness of the business of winning. But he also knows he can’t be wasting opportunities.
“Respect the good team that you are on because it can flip so easy, so quick,” Jokic said. “Enjoy the collective that we have and what we’ve built. Try to grow if possible. That’s my motivation.”
Everything is the same for Jokic. And that’s how he likes it. There’s continuity with the roster as the Nuggets return the core from their 2023 championship run. Denver was unable to repeat last year, and the goal this season is to get back to the mountain top.
“Every year, all 30 teams want to get better,” Jokic said. “Some of them do and some of them don’t get better. Just because I don’t smile, I don’t laugh doesn’t mean I’m not excited [about the season]. I’m excited to see what we can do. I’m excited. I just don’t show it.”
The Nuggets are coming off a season in which they won a franchise best 57 wins. But few remember their superb regular season because of the way it ended. The Nuggets ran out of gas in the playoffs as they were eliminated in the second round by Minnesota. What hurt the most was Denver squandered a 20-point second-half lead in Game 7 at home.
When Jokic was asked about the painful Game 7 loss to the Timberwolves, he touched on it for a bit and moved on.
“I don’t think about something that happened three, four, five months ago,” he said. “We had a Game 7 and we lost a big lead. That’s why basketball is an amazing sport. It’s a live thing that can change in every possible way. Can we change something? Probably, yes. Maybe we can do something different. I’m not gonna think about it now.”
Jokic’s place in basketball lore is secure. If his career ended now, he’ll be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. He’ll go down as the greatest centers to ever play. But winning a second NBA championship would certainly put him on a different tier of greatness. There are only seven three-time MVPs in league history with at least two titles: LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabber, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell.
So, winning another title would put Jokic in elite company. And that’s no joke.