Before his Warriors defeated the Denver Nuggets on Friday night, Golden State coach Steve Kerr heaped some pretty heavy praise on Nikola Jokic, calling the three-time MVP the best center he’s personally ever seen. That includes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, whom Kerr briefly played against in 1988.
“It’s unfair to compare eras,” Kerr began, “but [Jokic] is the best center I’ve ever seen. I played against Kareem. Kareem couldn’t do all this stuff. And again, eras dictate a lot of that. So we’re in the modern era, and we are watching a guy [in Jokic] who is doing things nobody’s ever done before.
“It goes so far beyond the skill level with Jokic,” Kerr continued. “It’s the competitiveness. It’s the intelligence. He is absolutely one of the smartest players ever. And you see it in so many different ways.”
This is sure to draw some old-head hate, but let’s be honest about this stuff. Saying a player as great as Jokic is the best big man you’ve ever seen is not a knock on Kareem or Hakeem or Shaq or anyone else, and more than someone saying LeBron is the best player they’ve ever seen is a knock on Michael Jordan, or vice versa, or that Stephen Curry is better than Magic Johnson, or vice versa.
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These are all-time players. Preferences will vary, and eras, to Kerr’s point, are a factor in anything subjective. But the general point here is that Jokic is an all-time player. We’re way beyond him just being the best current player in the world. This is a guy who, after just 10 seasons, already has a legitimate case as a top-10 player of all-time, and he’s far from done. He could end up in the GOAT conversation, depending on how long he plays. He’s that great.
Like everyone else, I have an opinion, and he’s the best passer I’ve ever seen. Not the best passer for big men; the best passer period. He hunts assists like a great scorer hunts shots. He sees them, or senses them, before they materialize. Defenses are powerless. Teammates are in heaven.
Like prime LeBron, Jokic could score 35-40 points a night if he wanted to. He is a score-second guy and is still an all-time scorer from any spot on the floor. Magician footwork. Deft touch and creativity. A methodical, almost nonchalant pace that makes you wonder if he’s even trying. The greater the athlete, the easier they make it look. Jokic is a great athlete. Save all your talk about traditional stuff like running and jumping being the only definition of athletic greatness. His natural coordination is a superpower.
Is he better than Kareem? I don’t know. I was too young to really watch Kareem play, certainly in his prime. But Kerr isn’t crazy for saying this. You can disagree, but it’s an honest conversation. Jokic is more than deserving of that kind of respect, and again, he’s far from done.
