In a recent appearance on ‘The Young Man & The Three,’ former NBA point guard Steve Nash gave some high praise to Nikola Jokic. According to Nash, the Joker is on track to become a top-four player of all time if he maintains this level of play for another couple of years.
“What did he average, a triple-double this year? Super high efficiency, the team was hurt a lot. When your team is injured, guys are in and out of the lineup, they maybe didn’t have the depth they had in their championship year, and you can load up on him a lot more. He still was crazy efficient and dominant. That to me is, if this guy does this for another five years, we’re talking like he’s on Mount Rushmore,” Nash said of Jokic on the Young Man & The Three podcast.
The ‘Mount Rushmore’ of NBA legends typically includes players like Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Bill Russell. These guys are considered the best of the best as both athletes of the game and representatives of the league itself.
Each player considered for the NBA’s Mount Rushmore has had a massive impact on the game and is revered by their respective teams. While hardly anybody can agree on the same four players, there is no denying that the bar has been set high to even be considered for the exercise.
In the case of Nikola Jokic, there are few players active right now who have a greater case than he to make the Mount Rushmore. At 30 years old, Jokic has fundamentally changed the game with his abilities by redefining what’s expected of an NBA big man.
At 6’11” and 280 pounds, most teams would play Jokic like a traditional big man and run their offense through the backcourt like it’s been done for decades. As one of the best ball handlers, passers, and decision-makers in the league, however, Jokic can do so much more than score, and the Nuggets decided very early on that the Joker would have full control of the offense, with the ball in his hand as much as possible.
The results have been stunning so far, with three MVPs, seven All-Star appearances, and 6 All-NBA selections. In nine years, Jokic is averaging 21.8 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game for his career. In 2023, he led the Nuggets to their first championship in franchise history and cemented his status as their greatest player ever.
As the Nuggets fight to stay alive in this postseason, Jokic is doing everything he can to take out the enemy, but his trajectory is already set. If he can maintain this level of play through the rest of his contract (four years and $227 million) and win another title for the Nuggets, he’ll have a strong case to call himself one of the NBA’s top four greatest players ever.
In the modern NBA, there has been nobody more dominant than Jokic, and his run with the Nuggets is proof enough that he deserves a place with the All-Time greats. Only time will tell what more he can accomplish, but he’s already done enough to immortalize his legacy in basketball history.
