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The Serbian superstar is on another basketball rampage. The Joker (aka Nikola Jokic) is destroying everything in his way so far this season, sending a message that he’s going to make it really hard for anyone else to win the NBA’s MVP this season, which could be his fourth in five years (and the one he didn’t win was a farcical joke).
I figured this summer he would start losing interest in being the world’s best basketball player and fade into the background. I thought dead wrong.
Every night, game after game, a triple-double. He’s averaging 29 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists which puts him in contention to win the league’s “Triple Crown” – a feat no one in NBA history has ever done.
All this guy does is break all-time records, crush opponents, post spellbinding stats, and lead his team to victories.
I remember when Larry Bird was in his prime in the 1980s and won three straight MVPs. Every time he took the court he owned the entire orchestra production with his passing, shooting, and rebounding.
This is exactly what The Joker is doing – he’s clearly peaking and, amazingly, gets better every year.
As spectacular as Bird was, I can’t honestly say he was as consistently brilliant as Joker in all three phases. Joker’s a better passer and rebounder and, based on percentages, a better three-point shooter and overall percentage shooter.
I mean, really, how can you not say Joker is better than Bird? Joker is shooting 56 percent from the field; Bird was more often in the forties.
Bird’s passing was mind-boggling; Joker’s passing is not even in the realm of plausible much of the time. He’s like a magician with the ball – and he’s 7 feet tall.
There isn’t much going on in sports that is entertaining these days with Caitlin Clark now resting in the off-season. The NFL is a full-on borefest. Travis and Taylor sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g. Great.
The one guy who’s worth watching right now in sports is The Joker. No one can figure out why he is so great and how he has kept up this next-level “best player in the world” status for the past five seasons. It doesn’t make much sense unless you think about some sort of special hand-eye coordination he has, and the ability to see plays before they happen, and to make passes no one in basketball ever even tries they’re so difficult to pull off.
One day ten years from now we’ll all look back at what the Joker is doing right now and ask how he was able to play basketball better than everyone else so often. We won’t be able to articulate it then and we can’t now.
It’s not explainable.
His greatness is mostly mysterious, like Shakespeare’s writing, and Caitlin’s logo threes.
Again – this season – after so many off-the-chart seasons under his belt – the Joker is still fooling everybody.
He won’t let us know how he’s doing it.
And he never will.
A man with spectacular basketball skills.
On his way to becoming the greatest basketball player who has ever lived.
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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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