Nikola Jokic has won three MVPs, a championship and a Finals MVP. He would now like everyone to stop asking him for pictures.
The Nuggets center made comments that circulated over the weekend about how exhausted he is by the attention that comes with being the best basketball player alive, and he did not soften any of it.
“I’m getting more and more bothered by popularity,” Jokic said. “This is going to sound corny, but, I’m getting ruder to people who approach me. Honestly, it’s tiring. Some people around me know, I don’t take pictures because it’s my time. I’ll sound rude again, but what can I do? If people can’t understand me, I understand everything, but it’s been 11, 12 years and enough is enough.”
He closed with the line that has traveled the furthest: “I feel better when someone tells me something, like you come to the zoo and take a picture of something.”
Denver’s columnist did not take it well
Mark Kiszla of the Denver Gazette published a column framing Jokic as a player who should be an NBA ambassador rather than a royal pain about it.
Kiszla traces Jokic’s media reticence back to the fallout from an accidental use of an anti-gay slur during the 2018-19 season, which is a fair piece of context and also a reminder of why a player might decide the public square is not worth the trouble.
Here is the counterargument, and it is a strong one. Jokic has never asked to be a marketing centerpiece. He shows up, posts triple-doubles, wins MVPs, goes home to his horses. The league built a global campaign around a guy who has been telling everyone for a decade that he does not want the campaign.
The timing is what makes this a story. The NBA spent Monday and Tuesday at Board of Governors meetings in New York discussing expansion and a European league launch. Global growth is the entire agenda. And the sport’s best player just told everyone the zoo exhibit is closed.
The rest of the Nuggets news is better
Aaron Gordon sounds ready to go after a season wrecked by calf tightness. He played just 33 regular season games and appeared in only three games of Denver’s six-game first-round loss to Minnesota, hitting 30 minutes once.
“I did a lot of soul-searching this offseason and training, so I got my mind right and my body right. I’m ready to go,” Gordon told DNVR Sports.
He also addressed Peyton Watson leaving in a trade: “That’s my dawg, but it’s deeper than basketball with Peyton and I. Our families members go to the same church, Peyton’s just like my brother. I’m happy for him, the situation that he’s in. Obviously, we would’ve loved to have him, but it worked out the way it should’ve.”
Denver signed 37-year-old DeMar DeRozan this offseason and opens the preseason Oct. 4 against Utah.
A healthy Gordon next to Jokic is worth more to the Nuggets than any amount of ambassadorial charm. Let the man skip the photos.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.