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“Jokic can win this championship. No one’s going to care. Let’s just be honest. I’m sorry. He’s not gonna go from where he is right now to this super megastar because he’s not doing anything kids want to see. It’s the players, their personalities. You know the Joker is great, but he doesn’t have IT.”
This is the latest “hot take” from former NBA player Gilbert Arenas about the best basketball player in the world, Jokic, who has led his Denver Nuggets team to the NBA Finals.
Yes, you’re right, Gilbert, no kids want to see the best passing anyone has ever done on a basketball court. No one wants to see a guy from Serbia outperform Americans, be a nice guy in interviews, have a sense of humor, dominate on the court, crush American players, every night. No story there at all. Not unusual at all. Not compelling. Totally boring.
We want to see dunks and loud personalities and flash. We want basketball players to be cool and hip, to show off and brag and wear fancy clothes and jump high over the rim. We want NBA players to bring guns to their locker rooms like you did because that’s impressive.
Not.
I think maybe, Gilbert, you are trying to minimize the greatness of Jokic and keep people from watching how great he is because you’re secretly concerned that maybe he does have that “it” factor – which he absolutely does – and that’s a threat to all the basketball players who don’t pass, shoot, and rebound nearly as well as he does.
Because if that’s true, which you know it is, then maybe all the guys you say have that “it” factor may not actually have “it” anymore and they will be less popular among fans because they’ll start wanting to watch Joker play more often because he’s better than all the guys who you believe have “it.”
And then what? Maybe they get beaten so many times by Joker that your guys who have the “it” start falling off the front pages, and onto the benches and then out of the league and are no longer “it.” Maybe you’re concerned this guy Joker is showing that European basketball players are better trained than American players. Maybe he’s a sign of a trend you find unsettling, that more and more highly skilled European players are going to take the roster spots – and multi-million-dollar salaries — of the American players you say have “it” but are becoming no longer “it” at all.
That’s really it, isn’t it, Gilbert?
You have to downplay Jokic so people won’t want to follow him more closely. You have to say he lacks personality, which you know is untrue. You have to say no one will care if he wins the NBA championship because you don’t like the direction the NBA is heading, which is more in the direction of more fundamentally sound European basketball players.
With disingenuous cheap shots, you’re trying your best to push Joker aside and diminish what he’s doing. Sorry to say, Gilbert, but your shallow stunt isn’t going to work. I see what you’re up to. But let me let you in something: I don’t think watching a guy dunk a basketball is nearly as fascinating as a guy passing the ball with more precision and wizardry than anyone ever has. Dunking is boring. It’s old news.
Mind-blowing passing is fascinating. Joker’s passing has every bit of an “it” factor as anything going on anywhere in basketball right now.
But carry on as I know you will. Keep trying to stop Joker from playing the ultimate joke on the so-called compelling personalities of your group of NBA players who dunk and show flash and strut around. Go ahead, keep telling yourself no one will care about Joker winning the NBA title. Keep up the narrative. It’s the only one you’ve got.
But it’s not going to work.
Because Joker is it.
And you know it.
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Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
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