Everyone knows about the accomplishments and the accolades that Nikola Jokic has earned in his NBA career with the Nuggets. There’s a reason he has won the league’s MVP award three times in four years while mixing in a Finals MVP as well.
He routinely puts up triple-doubles - or comes close - and even his “off games” produce box scores that most players would kill for. If anything, we’ve become numb to the gaudy statistics that Jokic puts up on a regular basis.
The NBA in general has been undergoing a bit of a stats infusion; players are piling up crazy numbers left and right. It becomes hard to keep track and hard to be too impressed when we are so used to seeing these great numbers.
But what Jokic is doing should not be glazed over, ignored, or chalked up to his generation. He needs proper appreciation and that requires extra levels of context. Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report recently posted an excellent stat that provides just that.
Career stats show Jokic in new and improved light
Bailey pointed out that currently, there are only eight players in NBA history who have recorded more points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks than Jokic in the regular season and postseason combined.
This would be an incredible case for Nikola’s career achievements even if he retired today, but the fact that he’s just 29 years old makes it even more incredible. The eight players above Jokic on this list are LeBron James, Karl Malone, Kevin Garnett, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Paul Pierce, Scottie Pippen, Kevin Durant, and Larry Bird.
All of those players are all-time greats and guys who are in the Basketball Hall of Fame or will be very shortly. Everyone on the list has taken at least 1,000 games to reach their numbers with Bird the lowest at 1,061 games played. Everyone else has played at least 1,200 games, and the top 5 are all over 1,500 career games.
All of them, that is, except for Jokic. The current MVP has played in just 755 games. And yet, he has already cracked this list. It’s absolutely remarkable what he’s been able to do already and if he continues playing deep into his 30s, Jokic will stand atop this list and many more. It’s not hyperbole to say we’ve truly never seen anything like this before.