The biggest NBA star coming to San Francisco this weekend is, by far, Nikola Jokić.
At six feet, eleven inches, the Denver Nuggets center isn’t the tallest player in Sunday’s All-Star game; that honor goes to Victor Wembanyama (seven-feet, three inches). But at 284 pounds, Jokić is the heaviest. And what truly distinguishes him (and makes this All-Star game unique) is that as a player, Jokić is the best — to ever play the game.
The claim is not only bold, it’s possibly perilous. So let’s start with what’s easily provable: that Jokić is the best player in the NBA this year. There’s no shortage of statistics supporting the argument, beginning with the fact that he’s averaging 29.8 points, 12.6 rebounds, and 10.2 assists per game.
This season, Jokić is the league leader in triple-doubles, a feat that requires a player to hit double digits in three of five categories: points, rebounds, assists, blocks, or steals. Jokić has done it in 25 games this season, and no one else in the league has more than 10. In the spirit of transparency, I was born and raised in Denver and might be a Nuggets fan. So, don’t take my word for it that Jokić’s triple doubles reveal his all-around greatness — take Nigel Sapp’s.
“He’s the best triple-double getter in the league, and completely changes his team’s chances of winning by virtue of doing so,” Sapp wrote in a text, referring to Jokić. His statlines “ROUTINELY come out to absurdities,” Sapp added, meaning he often hits high double-digits in some categories. “Consistent triple doubles of Jokic’s kind are evidence of basketball excellence.”
Sapp, 25, is a fintech marketing lead and recent Duke University grad who I interviewed Wednesday night at Kezar Pub, where he and a friend, Eric Little, 26, were watching the Blue Devils shred Cal. They are the type of fans who know a lot, arguably too much, about the NBA, their knowledge betraying many hours spent in front of televisions.
Their sense of the league’s history was impressive, especially given their age, and their understanding meant they had an informed appreciation of Jokić’s ascent. Sapp is from Atlanta, making him an objective Hawks fan. On another television over his right shoulder, Jokić was on his way to another triple-double in a win against the Portland Trail Blazers.
“He’s the best player in the NBA right now, there’s no question about it,” Sapp told me. But Jokić “doesn’t look like he should be the best player in the world.”
That’s because, in Sapp’s words, Jokić is “hefty.” Especially early in his career, Jokić was almost baby-faced. But more recently he has grown a scraggly, unbecoming beard. “I won’t call him handsome,” Sapp said.
Jokić plays a lot of minutes and, especially when he’s tired, he lumbers up and down the court. His body type and movement is almost the opposite of lean, more athletic big men like Kevin Durant. And yet, there’s a deceptive grace to his game. Jokić often posts up against opponents, and just when it seems they’ve gained a decent defensive position, he lithely pivots, sometimes back and forth in full circles, to find an easy basket.
He makes difficult jump shots look easy, with a skip and fadeaway his fans call the Sombor Shuffle, a celebrated reference to his hometown in Serbia. Jokić is shooting 45.6 percent from three-point range, making him the second-best mark among 118 players with at least 200 three-point attempts.
Jokić has won the league’s MVP award three times, and in 2023 lifted the Nuggets to the team’s first championship title. Some put him in second place to win another MVP this year. For me, all his statistics and awards (except the championship) take a back seat to his passing, which rivals the great Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
On Thursday I went to Thrive City to see how the league was using Jokić to promote the All-Star game. The gift store was selling jerseys with players’ names on the back: Wembanyama, Gilgeous-Alexander, Antetokounmpo, Edwards, James, and, of course, lots of Curry. They even had past greats: Webber, Iverson, and Jordan.
But no Jokić. The store clerk said some Nikola jerseys might be coming, but he wasn't sure. I asked the NBA and Nuggets where I might see Jokić in San Francisco this weekend, besides the game. “We don’t have anything else on Nikola’s schedule, beyond the game and practice,” Maureen Coyle, a league spokeswoman told me in an email. “It doesn’t look like he’s making other public-facing appearances.”
Jokić’s absence, and difficulty to find, even as an image or name on a jersey, was a fitting representation of his place in the NBA. In the 2014 draft he was the 41st pick. While his ability is widely recognized by players and real fans, he’s not especially visible or marketed. He’s not “media trained,” as Sapp puts it.
I went to Ballast, a bar just blocks from the Chase Center, where I found Steve Grapentine, taking in two games at the same time: the Timberwolves, his hometown team, and separately, the Warriors, his recently adopted second team, since he moved to San Francisco. What did he think of Jokić’s place in the game, I asked.
“I think he’s already one of the best players of all time,” Grapentine said. “He's very sneaky the way he plays, he makes the right pass, all the kind of subtleties, and he’s just kind of got a joy for it,” he said. “But then at the same time he’s got some balance, where he’s got some unassuming humor about him, too.”
Grapentine, a 44 year-old pediatric clinical pharmacist, thinks Jokić is unlikely to surpass Michael Jordan as an all-time great — maybe unfairly, he said, based on the Chicago star’s iconic status and six championships. He’s also not likely to surpass LeBron James, because of the longevity of the Lakers star’s career, he said.
Grapentine said Jokić is “underrated” and will “go down as probably one of the greatest of all time.” But he hit upon what’s arguably Jokić’s most important attribute: he’s “relatable,” Grapentine said. Jokić is genuinely indifferent to statistics, MVP awards or media attention. All he seems to really care about is his family, horses — and winning.
His nuanced competitiveness and creativity is, like the NBA itself, a welcomed distraction from the darkness of the outside world. But it’s his winning combined with his humility, a quality in dangerously short supply at this moment in our culture, that makes him a potent, and possibly the best, antidote to the times he’s playing in.
