Nuggets fans tuning into TNT on Monday night got plenty of joy watching Denver make a furious comeback to upset the Thunder and take a 1-0 lead in their second-round series. But that was in the second game of the doubleheader; in the first game, Nuggets fans weren’t so happy.
I know that Jalen Brunson just got named Clutch Player of the Year (whatever that even means), but I’m sorry, the way Reggie Miller was gushing over him, continually referring to him as the most clutch player in the league, the best closer, best player in crunchtime, and other iterations of that same idea, was absolutely sickening.
Brunson may have won the award, but there’s not a soul alive who wouldn’t take Nikola Jokic over anyone else in crunch time. Break it down however you want, when the game is on the line, Jokic is the first guy getting picked in any type of hypothetical draft.
You want the ball in his hands, you want him making the read, the pass, the shot, whatever it may be; he will make the correct decision. And that’s the whole point. While Brunson is a great shot-maker, Jokic can do it all.
It doesn’t matter what the defense sends at Jokic or who’s guarding him. He gets the Nuggets the best possible look time and again, regardless of teammates or opponents.
Miller constantly ignored Jokic with Brunson praise
I’m sure Miller didn’t mean to send any shade at Jokic, but that’s how it came off. He talked about it multiple times and never even acknowledged the possibility that anyone but Brunson could be the most clutch player in the NBA.
And it wasn’t just Nuggets fans who noticed this. On Tuesday’s episode of the Bill Simmons podcast, Bill’s guest, Zach Lowe, goaded him a little bit, asking about Reggie bringing it up “like 10 times” on the broadcast, some variation of Brunson being the best 4th quarter player in the league.
Bill basically scoffed at the whole thing dismissively, explaining that handing that distinction to any player while Jokic is in the league is ridiculous. It’s nice to see some of the national media guys actually siding with Jokic and Denver over the Knicks.
Miller was way over the top with his hyperbolic Brunson talk, and he had Nuggets fans shouting at their TV. It’s nice to see others recognizing the atrocities committed on national television, and it was only made sweeter by Jokic’s incredible 4th quarter performance in OKC during TNT’s night cap.