Every week there’s a new story about someone in the media, often a current or former player, either taking shots or heaping praise on Nikola Jokic. As it often does, the MVP discourse has ramped up and gotten pretty intense. The debate between Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wages on and has the potential to create a toxic environment like we’ve seen in years past.
We’ve seen both ends of the spectrum recently with Kevin Durant calling Jokic top-10 all-time, Klay Thompson declaring the Joker to be the best big man he’s ever played against, and Shaq making Jokic a championship belt for being the best big man.
But during that same stretch we’ve also seen Anthony Edwards say SGA should have won MVP last year, Jalen Brunson claim that Luka Doncic was held to a higher standard last year in terms of team success, and Lou Williams say that Jokic putting up stats out of necessity is a slight against him and his MVP case.
It’s clearly a very polarizing situation, one that demands attention, and apparently, an opinion. Whether or not Jokic wins his fourth MVP this season, he’s carving out a legacy that will have him entrenched in these types of debates as long as basketball is around.
KG claims “Joker is Wilt”
One former player who has never shied away from a microphone and has presented many iconic soundbites is Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett. On his podcast, KG Certified, along with former teammate and Hall of Famer Paul Pierce, Kevin and Paul were read a list of where Jokic ranks in a number of statistical categories, and the two were floored.
Pierce looked almost stunned to hear this information, “So, he’s top 5 in 3 categories” he offered. But then Garnett chimed in with a crazy comment from out of the clouds, “Joker is Wilt. Joker is doing Wilt-like s***”.
This might be the highest level of praise I’ve heard for Jokic from another NBA player. Wilt is often used as the measuring stick of dominance in the history of basketball. His stats are a relic of a foregone era. Reading them now, they sound fake and Chamberlain comes off as a mythical figure, something like basketball’s Paul Bunyan.
Most of his stats and records will never be touched, but Jokic truly may be the closest thing we’ve seen since Wilt. It seems there is a different ridiculous Joker stat emerging almost every night, and we frequently see the phrase “since Wilt Chamberlain” associated with Jokic’s accomplishments.
As crazy as it sounds, it’s an astute statement and observation from Garnett. Jokic is breaking basketball and dominating the league in a way that translates to stats in a way we really haven’t seen since Wilt. It’s bold for KG to say it, but it’s actually an apt comparison.