During All-Star weekend, Nikola Jokic was asked to pick an All-Star starting five of only Europeans, and he made some interesting selections.
“Luka (Doncic), both Bogdanovic (Bojan and Bogdan), (Dario) Saric, and (Nikola) Vucevic,” Jokic said.
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There is a strong Eastern European flavor to that starting five, so you can understand why some French stars like Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama didn’t make Jokic’s team. Excluding Giannis Antetokounmpo, however, is an interesting decision.
For me, Antetokounmpo is clearly the second-best European player in the NBA at the moment, after Jokic. For all the Milwaukee Bucks’ struggles this season, Giannis is putting up incredible averages of 30.8 points, 11.2 rebounds, 6.4 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.1 blocks per game.
I’ll give Jokic the benefit of the doubt that he was just put on the spot there and couldn’t remember all the names. The 29-year-old has never been the kind to take shots at anybody, and he probably just went with players whom he is very close to, like Bogdan Bogdanovic from the Atlanta Hawks, who is a teammate of his on the Serbian national team.
As for some other notable exclusions here, I would name Domantas Sabonis, Kristaps Porzingis, and Lauri Markkanen.
What Would Be The Best European Starting Five?
With so many talented Europeans playing in the NBA right now, choosing the best starting five won’t be an easy task. There are some players, though, who would pick themselves.
Jokic would be the center, Doncic would be the point guard, and Giannis would take one of the forward spots. That leaves two open spots, and one for me would go to Sabonis, who is averaging 20.1 points, 13.2 rebounds, 8.3 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game.
How he didn’t make the All-Star team with those numbers is beyond me, but it is what it is. Sabonis might be a bit redundant on the same team as Jokic, who is averaging 26.1 points, 12.0 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game this season, but I’d back the two of them to still be quite productive next to each other.
The last spot at shooting guard probably goes to Bogdan Bogdanovic. With Antetokounmpo and Sabonis not being great shooters, his prowess from beyond the arc could certainly come in handy. You could also perhaps slot in Bojan Bogdanovic or Markkanen in there to make a really big starting five.
Nikola Jokic Was Asked To Share His List Of The Top-Five Players In The NBA Excluding Himself
Jokic is generally regarded as the best player in the league today, but who would be in his top five? Well, earlier in this season, Michael Porter Jr. asked Jokic to share his top five players in the NBA, excluding himself.
“I think I’m gonna say, Joel, Luka, you have to put KD and LeBron there. Even though they are a little bit older I think they can still perform. Steph… and then you have Tatum, [Anthony Edwards], Giannis… I think it’s really impossible to say. Maybe you like some other player more than some like his game but I think it’s really hard to put that top five or even top 10, to be honest.”
Jokic just couldn’t narrow it down in the end. The fact that Antetokounmpo was there, though, shows that the six-time All-Star does have a great deal of respect for him.
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