Jamal Crawford told me that Nikola Jokic got distracted last year. If that’s what “distracted” looks like, faith and begorrah. Could someone distract him some more? Please?
“To be honest with you, I thought the Joker allowed some people in the media to kind of deter his mission that he was on,” Crawford, the TNT/Warner Bros. Discovery hoops analyst, said recently. “I thought he could have won a third (MVP award), but I thought he kind of slowed down and said, ‘You know what? I don’t even care about this. I want to win a championship.’ And kudos to him, because he did it and won what was important.
“But I thought if he would’ve came with that same kind of vigor that he had to start the season, we could easily be talking about him with three straight MVPs as well. I mean, Joel (Embiid) had an unbelievable season. But I just thought Joker slowed down just a little bit. But maybe the outside noise got to him a little bit.”
Jokic cares about “outside noise” about as much as he cares who wins the Rocky Mountain Showdown. When you’re the best player in the galaxy, that whole “slowed down” argument is relative.
Some context: In March and April of 2022, over the last 19 games of the regular season, the soon-to-be back-to-back NBA MVP averaged 31.6 points, 13.7 boards and 7.5 dimes while shooting 62.3% from the floor.
Over his 14 regular-season appearances in March and April of 2023, with his Nuggets already in the catbird seat, the Big Honey averaged 24 points, 12.4 rebounds and 9 assists while shooting 62.8% from the floor.
This while playing just 51 regular-season minutes over two games in April. During which Jokic took only 18 shots, scored 20 points, rested a wonky calf and recharged for the marathon to come.
The Nuggets climbed to the summit on the heads of Karl-Anthony Towns, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Jimmy Butler and an army of ESPN doofuses — doofusi? — preaching flawed narratives in the morning and eating crow burgers at night. The Joker soared to a 16-4 record through four postseason rounds, swept the Lakers and brought Uncle Larry O’Brien home.
So, yeah, if that’s “distracted,” amen and hallelujah. You’ll take that version 11 times out of 10. Viva la outside noise!
“Jokic has nothing to prove, to any of us,” Crawford’s TNT teammate Reggie Miller said. “I mean, this is the guy who was in line to win three MVPs in a row. If you talk to a lot of people, and as great as his (Finals) MVP (run) was last season, (and it was) fantastic, a lot of people had Jokic on their ballot to win three straight, (like) (Bill) Russell, (Wilt) Chamberlain and Larry Bird. So does he have anything basketball-wise to prove? No.”
As long as the Joker rocks Denver blue, the road to the title runs through Speer. So let’s enjoy genius while it lives, rent-free, inside a league’s collective head. And while it dances, like a double rainbow from a Mile High, inside a city’s collective heart.
“I think last year, with not only them winning the way they won, but the fashion they won (it) in — Joker was so good in the Finals,” Crawford continues. “And I said this and (Heat coach Erik) Spoelstra didn’t agree with it, but I said it. I said, ‘He’s not even playing against the Heat. He’s playing against Spoelstra.’ Because everything (the Miami coach) threw at him, he was able to counter.
“(Jokic) had an all-time great Finals run and I feel like this year it will be just about not being the hunter, but being the hunted … there won’t be any surprises. Think about it last year: They were No. 1 pretty much the whole year and people were still like, ‘I don’t know if they’re for real.’ Now everybody knows they’re for real.”
And if he needs some noise to cinch it? Fine. It took ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins all of three minutes this week declare the Suns’ Devin Booker the “best offensive weapon” in the West. It took another two for him to anoint Kevin Durant as the conference’s “best pure scorer,” as if last spring never happened. Same as it ever was.
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Sarah Wilson is your guide to the latest trends, viral sensations, and internet phenomena. With a finger on the pulse of digital culture, she explores what’s trending across social media and pop culture, keeping readers in the know about the latest online sensations.
