The Legend of Nikola Jokic Is Growing

Nikola Jokic—as an idea—has never made much sense. No player who is 7 feet tall should be able to sling passes the way Jokic does, or shoot at the clip he does, or control the game from as many different areas of the floor as he does. And if one could, they surely wouldn’t have been selected in the second round of the draft, with a pick so seemingly inconsequential it was announced during a commercial cutaway for something called a Quesarito. The odds are against any second-round pick even getting a real shot in the league—especially one like Jokic, whose body type was understood to be incompatible with NBA basketball. Even if he did get a chance to prove himself, it was highly unlikely that a player with his profile would ever manage to stick around, let alone go on to dominate—to win MVPs, shatter records left and right, and deliver a franchise to the NBA Finals.