JOKIC’S BATTLE SCARS
Want to know how Nikola Jokic got all those scratches on his arms?
Want to know how the Joker got those scars?
They occupy his arms in clusters, usually three or four at a time, at any given moment within the NBA season. Raw, bloody scratches materialize across a biceps, triceps or forearm during Nuggets games, sometimes from an obvious culprit, other times seemingly out of nowhere. They attract his famously ambivalent gaze, occasionally evoking just a hint of surprise because not even he knows how to diagnose them every time this happens.
“Most of the time, it’s random,” Nikola Jokic told The Denver Post. “You never know what’s gonna happen.”
Then they morph into puffy purple wounds, tokens of the wars waged against Jokic on a nightly basis. They linger. “Long, deep, red,” teammate Reggie Jackson says. “They’ve been there. Scabbed over at times.”
They’re notorious by now, nine years into a career destined for the Hall of Fame. They’re an essential feature of a two-time league MVP, an inextricable aspect of his growing legend. As he arrives in Indianapolis for his sixth consecutive NBA All-star Game this weekend, he’s decorated with a few of them. It’s nowhere near the goriest his arms have ever looked.
“We all get scratched up,” Boston Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis says. “But I agree, Jokic, his arms are always, for some reason, just red. It’s insane.”
“He gets fouled a (expletive) ton”
Want to know how the Joker got those scars?
Start with the elephant in the room. He’s not completely unique. NBA stars — centers in particular — have been getting raked on the arms for years. Jokic’s scratches are just more noticeable.
“He’s white,” said Nuggets backup center Deandre Jordan, who was a threetime ALL-NBA selection in his prime. “He’s a very pale white guy, and he gets fouled a (expletive) ton.”
Jordan still has a handful of “nasty ones” that morphed from deep scratches into scars over the years. “Rebounds. Holds. Rolling to the basket,” the two-time rebounding champ said last week in Sacramento, rolling up his sleeves to reveal the remnants. Jordan, who is Black, bluntly pointed out that his are a faint red. Not as noticeable. But Jokic?
“His whole arm’s gonna turn red,” Aaron Gordon piped in to say.
Still, the gnarliest gashes seem reserved for a select few. Fellow two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo has rivaled Jokic in scratch severity throughout his career, which has followed a similar trajectory to Jokic’s. Their accolades mirror each other, but their playing styles do not. Antetokounmpo is a fierce downhill driver. His skill is secondary to his length and strength. Jokic fools defenders into thinking his movements are cumbersome until they turn out to be methodical.
“I think you see scratches because he has lighter skin than me,” Antetokounmpo said. “I have a lot of scratches on my arms, too. My significant other thinks it’s sexy. So I love it.”
“You can’t relax”
Want to know how the Joker got those scars?
The specifics are kind of a mystery. Jokic and his contemporaries accept them as the norm. Ask most NBA centers about their own scratches, and they’ll respond with a shrug that it’s just part of the game.
That doesn’t stop them from having theories on why Jokic’s tend to be especially grisly, though. Is he more susceptible to getting new lacerations during big-on-big post matchups? On 50-50 rebounds? When smaller players are helping over on him or guarding him straight-up?
“Those are all good theories,” Bucks center Brook Lopez said.
Pelicans big man Jonas Valanciunas, whose passion for old-school post-play is uncommon these days, thinks fighting for off-ball positioning against an opposing center — particularly one with Jokic’s brilliance for floor-spacing — is enough to draw blood.
“The more active you are, the more physical, the more scratches you’re gonna have. … He knows how to get in a position where he can be effective,” Valanciunas said. “Even if he gives it away, even if he passes the ball out, you’ve gotta anticipate that there’s some kind of action going on, where he’s gonna keep moving without the ball and get the ball in a better position. You’ve gotta be active in guarding him all the time. Read the game. See what’s going on. You can’t relax. Not even a second.”
Porzingis, who relies more on height than heft, admitted that when Jokic burns an opposing five with a slippery post move, the natural instinct is to compensate by clawing.
“He’s so crafty that a lot of times you just lose him,” he said. “And then you’re trying to grab him or something and trying to get back in the play. Because he’s already making the next play and just spinning around you and doing all these things.”
Nobody gets compared to Jokic more than Alperen Sengun, Houston’s 21-yearold phenom who narrowly missed his first All-star selection this year. The Turkish center, nicknamed “Baby Jokic,” is starting to accumulate his own battle scar collection. He attributes Jokic’s to a combination of factors: handsy help defenders and Jokic’s ability to get matchups to leave their feet with his array of fakes.
“When they jump earlier, they need to do something to not give easy points out,” Sengun said. “… You can’t stop him easily one-on-one. And all the people are coming (to) help. And he gets all offensive rebounds and other things, and there’s a lot of hands.”
Jackson, a veteran guard who has played with and against Jokic, made an observation that might explain the sheer length of the cuts. “You just can’t help but notice. It’s all over his arms,” he said. “Probably because he’s not moving as quickly.”
If someone moves in slow motion, Jackson hypothesized, a swipe across their arm will naturally not be as swift.
Deny, deny, deny
Want to know how the Joker got those scars?
Despite all that conjecture, everyone pleads the fifth when asked if they’ve ever been responsible for a Jokic scratch.
“I try to keep my hands out,” said Kings center Domantas Sabonis, laughing.
“I don’t remember,” Sengun said. “Maybe I have.”
“I don’t know if I’ve ever gotten him,” Lopez said.
“That’s a good question,” Porzingis said.
Even entire fanbases will deny, deny, deny. Last month in Philadelphia, the officials paused play, requiring Jokic to be treated for a bleeding hand after Joel Embiid fouled him. During the stoppage, an electric Wells Fargo Center crowd chanted, gleefully: “Refs you suck!”
A close-up of Jokic’s newest scratch was being shown on the big screen.
“Some people like to scratch”
Want to know how the Joker got those scars?
Long fingernails can help counter mismatches. The topic has been broached before. Rip Hamilton reportedly grew out his nails to aid his defensive play; his antics were eventually identified as the reason Ray Allen started wearing a shooting sleeve.
“To each their own,” Jackson said. “Some people really like having long nails. It helps them. Tougher, rowdier, I guess. Some people like to scratch. … As long as you ain’t out here endangering anybody.”
Jackson is part of a large faction of players more interested in hand upkeep. He recalls being told when he was new to the NBA that he should “take care of what takes care of you.” Throughout his 13-year career since then, he has regularly gotten manicures and pedicures.
Jokic is a little more rudimentary. When asked by The Post if he has ever scratched an opponent, he replied in his usual deadpan. “No, I take care of my nails. I bite them.”
“I got got”
Want to know how the Joker got those scars?
Three days before Christmas in Brooklyn, he was suddenly bleeding profusely out of a new gash on his right forearm. Only five seconds remained in a game the Nuggets were trying to ice at the foul line. Jokic had crash-landed under the basket after a physical free throw box-out against Day’ron Sharpe. (Ironically, the NBA’S Last Two Minutes Report later ruled that Jokic should have been called for a foul, not Sharpe.)
The Nuggets were wearing white. Jokic’s jersey was blood-stained in multiple spots. But it was an unusual circumstance. With so little time left in the game, Jokic’s wound was briefly treated by Denver’s training staff during a timeout, then he stayed on the court for the remaining seconds and even made the foul shots that finally clinched the win.
“I just take a shower,” Jokic said when asked if he does anything to sanitize his scars. Beyond the required medical treatments, there’s not much to it.
The one in Brooklyn was impossible to ignore, but sometimes scratches are subtle enough that they don’t cause a dilemma. Hence the frequency with which Jokic doesn’t even know how to explain how he got a certain scar.
“Those are the kind of things you may not notice in-game because of the adrenaline. But when you go to shower or whatever it is after, you feel a little sting,” Lopez said. “And you’re like, ‘Dang, what is that? I got got tonight.’ It happens. I have tons of little scars all over, just from different games. You absolutely accumulate them.”
“I mind it”
Want to know how the Joker got those scars?
Porzingis has a respectable one on his forearm that nobody ever sees. He got it during his second season in the league, courtesy of P.J. Tucker.
“Everybody thinks it’s like a surgery, but it was a scratch in a game,” he said. “That’s why I actually started wearing the sleeve because it was all bloody. … Maybe (Jokic) needs to start wearing some sleeves.”
Not happening. Not only does Jokic’s pale skin contribute to scar visibility; but so does his continuing lack of arm accessories. In 2019, he told ESPN he was planning to start wearing a sleeve the next season. He never did.
It’s not that Jokic doesn’t mind getting clawed at. “I mind it,” he told The Post. The superstar who presents such a ho-hum personality to the public is, in fact, always trying to gain a competitive edge. Be it against opponents or referees. Evidence matters.
“It’s part of the game,” Jokic said. “And I can complain to the refs, ‘Ah, look! It’s a scratch!’”
“It’s tough to guard him, and it shows”
Want to know how the Joker got those scars?
Even if some see it as an unanswerable question, there’s an obvious answer: Certain players are just unguardable.
“He’s a tough guard,” Jordan said. “It’s tough to guard him, and it shows.”
“He’s the best player in the world,” Sengun said, “and when you’re playing those players, you need more focus, you know what I’m saying?”
The combination of power and finesse, of floater-range scoring and inventive passing, disorients opponents. Jokic is unpredictable, and when he is predictable, he still tends to get the shot he wants.
That’s why, as Lopez finished up a shootaround before a recent Bucks-nuggets game, he pondered a new potential strategy.
“Maybe I’ll try to scratch him tonight,” the two-time All-defensive center said, grinning. “We’ll see.”
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