ANDon the big screen the Joker is a cult character. A self-made criminal, the antithesis of Batman and charismatic in form and substance. In basketball, the opposite is true. The Joker is king. The main reference The Denver Nuggets are NBA champions after defeating the Miami Heat and Nikola Jokic (Sombor, Serbia, 1995) took the grand prize. The one that puts him in history: the Bill Russell MVP award of the finals. The best possible trick of the player that radically changes all previously seen scenario.
Jokic destroys the Miami Heat with five parties that exalt him. Its statistical line reaches Average 30.2 points, 7.2 assists, 14 rebounds and tremendous shooting efficiency (58.3% from the field and 42.1% from beyond the arc). Although Jamal Murray shone in the third and Aaron Gordon or Bruce Brown in the fourth, there was no arguing. MVP for the best of all. A base in a body of 2’11 meters and 130 kilos. Able to assist, defend and define. The different domain.
No one made it to Jokic. 600 points, 269 rebounds and 190 assists in total. The best of the Playoffs in all three statistics, nobody did it in the history of basketball. “What matters is that we won,” summed up the one from Sombor. Almost nothing to the device. The ultimate display. No player chosen beyond the top-15 of the Draft had ever been MVP of the Final and of the season. ‘Joker’ was chosen on 41.
The reality is that. He is a total and absolute dominator of the scene. In it first game, assistant pass and way of conditioning the Heat defense to have to sentence the match. In it second, the Nuggets lost but Jokic uncovered face to basket. He third, the great wonder of 32 points, 21 rebounds, 10 assists. The only one in history with such records. I repeated in Miami with 23+12 and suffering from ankle problems and fouls. But I completely resurfaced at the Ball Arena. 28 points and 16 rebounds to be world champion. “He’s so good that he didn’t play against Miami. He played against Spoelstra,” confessed Jamal Crawford. Because the Serbian received all kinds of traps from the Florida coach, and he resisted all of them.
Nikola Jokic, NBA MVP
It’s so good that he didn’t play against Miami. He did it before Spoelstra
In total, he bordered on perfection from start to finish of the post-season. Minnesota Timberwolves, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat fall with the champion Nuggets. Only LeBron James, on four occasions, and Larry Bird have a Playoffs like those of the Balkan. Two prodigies who signed at least 500 points, 200 rebounds and 150 assists. “Nikola sees things before they happen. One step ahead of everyone else,” confessed Michael Malone, his technician.
Jokic imposes his law in Miami and Denver hits the Final
“It doesn’t matter what you throw at Jokic. He always has an answer,” Malone added. The most outstanding IQ in the NBA, the way to understand how to compete in each context. His comparison goes to other giants in sports history, like Peyton Manning in the NFL or Bobby Fischer in chess. Brilliant minds, always with solutions. Against Miami, Spoelstra was setting up defenses that Jokic broke. “It’s a chess game. They move, we move. It’s the moment in which the players show what we have,” said the player from Sombor.
His total repertoire crowns him. He dominates the tempo, controls the space, decides and defines. Of the huge blows in the post-season, ending up bottomless. To eternal glory. The one in the title to the villain of the big screen. And legend on the court. The Nuggets are champions, Jokic is the MVP.
