The 2022-23 NBA season marked the first championship in the Denver Nuggets' history. Nikola Jokic was not the MVP that season, and the Nuggets did defeat the Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs. These 2025-26 playoffs are starting the same way, and we all hope that means a repeat of another ring. For Jokic, that ring would change everything about his place in the halls of basketball history.
Of course, not everyone with only one ring has been the best basketball player in the world for six years and counting. Victor Wembanyama and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander can battle it out all they want for MVP.
Another ring is what matters at the end of the day, and Jokic needs another for a bigger boost in the basketball all-time great debate. He's at the table, but he isn't up for consideration for the head of the table. Yet. A second ring can go a long way to getting him closer.
Where could Jokic land statistically against the greats?
You could argue that W/S, as measured by Basketball-Reference, is a great indicator of all-time greatness. The leader at the top is LeBron James, followed by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and then Wilt Chamberlain.
Michael Jordan comes in at sixth, but he played baseball for a couple of years and lost some playing time. It's not perfect. Chris Paul is sixth, but perhaps if he had a ring, he'd get more credit on the list.
Jokic is already 34th on the list, just behind Larry Bird at 30th, and Stephen Curry at 28th. Both players you'd rank ahead of Paul on the all-time list, and that's why rings are important.
Jokic is averaging 15.6 W/S per season over the last six seasons, the ones in which he's widely been considered the best basketball player in the world. If he plays four more seasons at that level, he'll land at or near the top 10, depending upon where Kevin Durant and James Harden finish on the list.
The championship ring is the elevating factor
Jokic's got the MVP hardware, the All-NBA team hardware, and the world's best title; he just needs the second ring now. Or more, of course.
Charles Barkley is ranked 19th, and nobody puts him in the debate of the upper echelons of the all-timers. No ring. Moses Malone, ranked 17th, has three MVPs, one ring, and is not in the debate of all-timers with most people.
Bird, at 30th? He has three rings, and many people put him high on the list. Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki are No. 8 and No. 9, and there's no debate for them at the ends of the table; they have multiple rings.
Jokic's on the right path to becoming an all-time great. He could get closer to sitting at the head of the table with other all-timers with one more ring. Or more, of course.