The atmosphere surrounding professional basketball is, by its very nature, sensational. It is a world of thunderous dunks, gravity-defying acrobatics, and headline-grabbing moments designed to elicit collective gasps. But what happens when true, generational greatness arrives in an unassuming package, moving with a pace that seems utterly out of step with the high-octane modern game? What happens when a player starts challenging the hallowed records of mythical legends, yet the narrative-makers of the sport pretend not to notice?
This is the perplexing, and frankly insulting, reality of Nikola Jokic’s career—a story of unprecedented dominance and baffling disrespect. A recent, seismic event occurred that should have broken every sports news ticker: Jokic officially passed Wilt Chamberlain for the most career triple-doubles by a center.
Let that sink in for a moment. Wilt Chamberlain. A name synonymous with impossible dominance, the man who scored 100 points in a single game—a performance so unreal that conspiracy theories still question its validity. The video’s narrator aptly notes that to stand “shoulder-to-shoulder with that same mythical energy” of Wilt is to enter a pantheon reserved for gods, not mere athletes. And yet, in the wake of this monumental achievement, the response from the broader NBA media has been a collective, deafening shrug.
This silence is the core scandal of the current NBA season. Nikola Jokic, “The New King,” is operating as a “living glitch in the system,” a “human cheat code from another era.” He is a seven-foot, 284-pound point guard disguised as a center, a phenomenon who scores, rebounds, and passes with a vision so profound that “he sees plays before they happen.” He is a basketball savant who can’t be sped up or flustered, defying conventional logic by playing at a pace that is “no speed in the whole idea of what speed is.”
His game is an intellectual exercise, an unscripted ballet of anticipation and decision-making that has frustrated the league’s toughest defenders. One former player describes him as the “toughest dude in the league to guard right now,” confessing that defending him leaves you “always off balance.” It’s the kind of subtle genius that requires an educated eye to truly appreciate, drawing comparisons to the cunning of Larry Bird.
The Context of Unprecedented Burden
What makes Jokic’s historical feat even more staggering is the context in which he achieved it. Unlike most modern superstars who often benefit from super-team construction or an established core of elite talent, Jokic has spent his entire career dragging the Denver Nuggets to success with a crushing, solitary burden.
The sobering truth that “hits hard” is undeniable: Jokic has never had a real All-Star teammate in his entire 11-year career.
This isn’t a minor detail; it’s the defining reality of his MVP case. We’ve seen him carrying Denver “night after night even when half his squad is out.” His running mate, Jamal Murray, has struggled with injuries, having not played more than 60-some games in a season since 2018-2019. When teammates are sidelined, as was the case recently with both Murray and Aaron Gordon, Jokic simply “still went absolutely nuclear.”
The message is clear: while other top contenders may play with the deepest, most balanced rosters seen in years—teams built possibly as well as the Durant/Curry Warriors—Jokic is “dragging a half-broken roster on his back and still finishing right behind them.”
This is the essence of Most Valuable Player. It’s not simply about the best stats; it’s about the player whose absence would cause the greatest collapse. Jokic is the “heartbeat, the brain and the muscle of this whole operation.” His talent is the duct tape, pure skill, and “straight magic” holding the Nuggets together as other teams limp toward the playoffs. The argument that he should have “multiple rings right now” is compelling, and the only counter is the fact that “half his team disappears when it matters most.”
The Numbers That Scream Disrespect
If the historical accomplishment and the context of team burden aren’t enough to secure his place as the MVP frontrunner, then a cold, hard look at the numbers should obliterate all debate. Yet, the media continues to treat him as a supporting actor in the league’s major narrative, sitting him at a distant third in MVP odds.
Jokic is dominating every advanced metric in existence. He’s not just scoring; he’s doing it with surgical precision. His recent performance included a line of 10-for-14 from the floor, resulting in an “unreal” True Shooting Percentage of a wild 73%. These are MVP-level numbers that most players only dream about, yet Jokic “makes it look easy.”
The most damning statistic against his detractors, however, is Plus/Minus. Last year, one of his rival’s biggest MVP arguments was his lead in plus/minus, with Jokic sitting right behind him. Fast forward to this season, and Jokic has completely flipped the script: He is now leading the entire NBA in plus minus, up by more than 50 points on the field. That margin is not just a lead; it is domination in the metric that truly defines a player’s positive impact on his team’s performance. Denver leads the entire league in scoring and sits second in opponent points allowed, and at the center of this two-way dominance is Nikola “freaking” Jokic.
The statistical disparity with other touted candidates is so glaring that it “exposes the truth loud and clear.” The conversation surrounding other stars, while talented, often feels like a manufactured hype train while Jokic’s performance is dismissed as “background noise.”
Knocking on History’s Door
The ultimate source of the media’s hesitation, the reason they are so “scared to admit what’s staring them right in the face,” is the potential for history. If Nikola Jokic secures his fourth Most Valuable Player trophy, he will join an inner circle of basketball legends so elite, so untouchable, that they define the sport itself.
We are talking about a list reserved for:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Michael Jordan
LeBron James
Wilt Chamberlain
Bill Russell
That is the entire, sacred list of players who have won four or more MVPs. Jokic is currently standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Larry Bird and Magic Johnson at three MVPs each, but just one more and he officially breaks into that sacred inner circle of basketball immortals. That is history in real time.
The media’s silence, their subtle refusal to give him his flowers, is akin to burying one of the most compelling, historical runs the NBA has ever seen. This is not about star power or marketability; it is about recognizing fundamental, generational greatness. Every single year, Jokic levels up. Every year, he breaks records we didn’t even know existed. And every year, the noise of doubt and questioning attempts to drown out the undeniable reality: Nikola Jokic might already be one of the greatest to ever touch a basketball.
The conversation needs to shift from ‘Who is the most popular?’ to ‘Who is the most valuable?’ The numbers, the context, and the historical records all point to one man. It is high time the NBA world wakes up and gives the Serbian Man, the undisputed new King of statistical dominance, the respect he has profoundly earned.
