There’s been no shortage of talk about Nikola Jokic’s legacy and place in history, but the conversation is becoming more and more mainstream. Recently, on his Over/Unders podcast with Zach Lowe and Joe House, Bill Simmons was discussing how another Jokic MVP and title would vault him into the GOAT debate, squarely in the top 10 of all time, and right there with players like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.
This isn’t a crazy take, or anything revolutionary, but it’s wild to hear an old-head like Simmons talking like this, a man famous for obsessing over the '80s Celtics and Bird. For him to state that a 30-year-old Joker is on the verge of entering the pantheon is a pretty massive concession.
At the same time, nothing about the statement should be remotely controversial or surprising. If the Nuggets have a dream season this year, in which Jokic wins MVP and the team wins another championship, that would objectively put him into rarified air.
Jokic GOAT case growing by the day
That would give Jokic four MVP awards and two titles, with plenty of years left to add to his resume. Only five players have ever won four or more MVPs, and that list includes LeBron James, Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
By anyone’s estimation, those are five of the greatest players to ever live, and each one has their own unique case to be the GOAT. For Jokic to join that list would make him absolutely teflon, and there would be nothing for haters to say that could knock him down a peg.
Like Simmons said, he’d be easily in the top 10 all-time at the very worst, with plenty of room to grow. If he wants to play seven or eight more seasons, the sky truly is the limit for Jokic. Could he get to five or six MVPs? Could he get three or four titles?
None of that seems at all out of the realm of possibility at this point, given the Nuggets’ roster and situation going forward. They should be in the mix to contend for years to come, and there has been no indication that Jokic is slowing down.
He has a real chance to pad his resume for the rest of the decade, and when things are all said and done, we are going to be looking at one of the best careers in NBA history.