Jokic laughs off MVP chatter as national spotlight grows
A little more than a week ago, following Nikola Jokic’s tripledouble against Phoenix, all Denver’s franchise center could do was laugh after the Pepsi Center crowd serenaded him with MVP chants.
It’s not that he wasn’t appreciative, it’s that Jokic doesn’t like the attention. If it was up to him, Jokic would speak to the media once a week and be done with the chore. On Sunday, both to clarify and crack a joke, he made sure that the same rudimentary questions posed to him by reporters wouldn’t be asked to him on Monday as the Nuggets prepared for New Orleans. A Nuggets staffer assured Jokic there would be no such inconvenience.
But his meteoric rise on the court has mandated more attention off it.
His first reaction to a question of whether he belongs among the NBA’s upper echelon, alongside guys like MVP candidates LeBron James and Anthony Davis, was to offer his team as a buffer.
“I don’t know,” he said. “We are 41, we are playing really good basketball, right now, so why not? Yes.”
As to the MVP question? Jokic is still smiling, unimpressed with the growing fame his play has engendered.
“I’m just playing my game, so if that’s gonna make me MVP one day this year, next year, in next whatever years, yes, but I think it’s still silly. I love it because it just makes me laugh.”
Jokic, whose four doubledoubles in five games is tied with Davis, among others, for sixth in the league has embraced Denver along with his newfound celebrity.
“Yes, that’s why I don’t walk,” Jokic joked. “Actually, (Nuggets fans) are kind of polite. They are not rude, they’ll start cheering for you. … That’s really cool.”
Jokic said the reception he gets walking around Denver is nothing compared to when he returns to his hometown of Sombor, Serbia. It’s “crazy” for two weeks before “everybody gets used to me.”
“I think maybe they like me just because I’m one of them,” Jokic said. “I’m just a normal guy from a small city from Serbia, and maybe they see themselves in me, or something like that. For me, it’s just a normal thing. It’s my home… Most of the people I know.”
Though he’s the glue of Denver’s offense, Jokic would prefer anonymity over accolades.
“Yes, I just want to put Serbia and my hometown on the map, but I don’t want nobody to come to Serbia,” he said.
After feasting on rookie Deandre Ayton against the Suns and then finding gaps in Golden State’s and Los Angeles’ frontcourt, Jokic will face his most difficult cover of the early season in Davis, the Pelicans’ center.
“He’s long, he has a nice touch when he shoots the ball, he can dribble, one of the most talented guys in the NBA,” Jokic said.
Not that he would admit it, but the unassuming superstar could’ve easily been describing himself.