Par Joël Pütz | Journaliste sportif
Nikola Jokic has dominated the league for years, boasting a resume that places him among the greatest players in history. But for a former rival of the three-time MVP, he can’t yet be ranked among the league’s all-time greats…
The second championship ring will have to wait a little longer. While he carried the Nuggets throughout the season, Nikola Jokic couldn’t get past the conference semifinals before the Thunder defeated them in seven games. However, it’s hard to blame the center, as he’s been so impressive this year.
Before 2025-25, only Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook had averaged a triple-double during a full season. But that was before Jokic posted a stat line of 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds, and 10.2 assists per game! It wasn’t enough to win his fourth MVP award, but it was one more feat in his immense career.
Marcus Morris dishes out on Nikola Jokic
At this point, many consider the Serbian to be one of the greatest players of all time. Some even rank him among the Top 10 all-time… An opinion that Marcus Morris absolutely does not share, however. The former player, whose brother Markieff took a huge hit from the Joker a few years ago, attacked him on Kevin O’Connor’s podcast:
I’m doubling down and I’m not going to sit here and downgrade Jokic. I believe that Jokic is a really good player. I believe that he’s a great player. The same game that he’s been playing is what I’ve been playing for the last 13 years. There is no big man, there is absolutely no big men in the league. For the last five years, there’s been no big men. If you go down the West and you look at the bigs that been in the league, there’s been none.
He’s been playing against Zubac for the last five years of legit big men and Joel Embiid twice a season. The landscape of basketball has changed. It’s small ball. When I was with the Clippers for four years, I was guarding Jokic. I’m a three-four man. Now, when you look at it around the league, who’s Jokic’s best defender?
Can you name five centers in the league in the last five years? The last center he had to deal with that was in the league was f***ing Dwight Howard. Whose the last five centers that Jokic had to deal with on a night-to-night basis?
It’s true that the center population hadn’t been particularly impressive for a few years. On the other hand, this has changed recently with the arrival of young talents in the West such as Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren.