Nikola Djokic is knocking on the door of being one of the best ever, making ex-players much uncomfortable.
Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets shocked the Oklahoma City Thunder and stole Game 1, the semi-final 121-119 of the Western Conference. Jokic finished with an absurd 42 points and 22 rebounds, but after seeing the performance it’s hard to argue that Nuggets aren’t the title favorite.
For the fifth consecutive season, Jokic will finish in the top two in MVP voting. Jokic has finished in a historic great season, but he may not win as he likes to bring his first Michael Jordan Trophy home.
If he could drag Denver to the finals, through powerful lightning, he might already be one, but there are cases where he is the top 10 player so far.
Only Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, LeBron James, Kareem Abdul Jabber and Michael Jordan have won more MVP awards than Jokic. Certainly, they all boast multiple championships, but the only title is the only one that keeps Jokic from being the top 10 player ever.
Chandler Parsons doesn’t want fans to move ahead of him.
“He’s one-time champion,” he insisted. “You got some more of those chips, and he was able to technically win the MVP this year. He won’t go. But we’ll talk about this as perhaps the best stats year for runner-ups and the best season.
“Again, you went back to Kareem and the old man and technically had a better resume. But no matter what he is, 10, 15, 20, he is one of the greatest players we’ve ever seen.”
If the Nuggets shocked the Thunder, who had one of the best regular seasons ever, Parsons might be ready to talk about them.
“You go ahead and knock off the number one seed like Thunder and put yourself in to win the championship this year,” he added. “So, I don’t think that’s a question. There are people like Kareem, Wilt, Shack. There’s a big centre that has resume hell.”
Of course, Parsons may be trying to avoid the difficult conversation that many former players are not ready.
In recent years, Jokic, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and Lebron James have built the best cases ever. Currently, most fans will agree that the 10 best players are James, Jordan, Abdul Jabber, Magic, Duncan, Russell, Wilt, Bird, Haekum, Kobe, and Shack. Usually you can choose one of those 10 and fans don’t often argue.
However, Durant, Curry and Jokic all have cases. Would you like to bootbird out? How about Shaq? Kobe Bryant has cult support, but he only had MVP and two rings as his true first choices, and his bad year was really bad.
Parsons quickly admits that while Jokic is doing something he has never seen before, he is still unsure of what he is the best ever.
“This guy can do it all,” he finished. “This guy is a game with a different style than anyone else. He is a point forward center. You go through him. He is incredible. You see the vision and make everyone around him better. It’s really incredible.
“I just hate his stat lines and they don’t even shock me anymore. It’s become the norm. And we’re paralyzed by his greatness and his brilliance. So I don’t know if he’s still in the top 10.
By the time today’s greats like Jokic, James, Durant, Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and perhaps Luka Doncic, the list of all time players in the top 20 is very different from what they were a decade ago.