Nikola Jokic deserves criticism for not playing better in the first round of the NBA playoffs against the Timberwolves. Minnesota eliminated Denver in six games Thursday night, despite a series-ending injury to Anthony Edwards.
Jokic didn’t play poorly in the traditional sense, but 25.8 points per game on 44.6% shooting isn’t good enough for a player of his caliber.
That said, the coverage is already excessive.
Moments after the Nuggets’ loss, former ESPN broadcaster Mark Jones mocked Jokic and celebrated his loss.
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For background, Jones’ schtick revolves around rooting for every top NBA star, except for Jokic and Luka Doncic. Here’s more about Jones’ weird fixation on the skin colors of athletes.
Kendrick Perkins’ feelings toward Jokic are also well-documented. In 2023, Perkins admitted on ESPN that he and other black players believe Jokic is only an MVP candidate because of alleged favoritism from white voters. Note: The data says NBA MVP voters do not favor white players. Nonetheless, like Jones, Perkins has actively rooted against Jokic as a paid NBA analyst for ESPN.
He also celebrated Jokic’s shortcomings Friday morning:
“We’re not in Serbia, we’re in America and he got punked yesterday. We have to hold him accountable like we do every ‘all time great.’ I jumped the gun just like everybody else when it comes to disrespecting all time greats,” Perkins said.
“We were so ready to put this man above all time greats because of certain numbers he was putting up in the regular season. He has one NBA championship. Matter of fact, I don’t think Jokic is going to win another NBA championship. He got exposed. Jokic has never sniffed an All-Defensive Team as a center. Rudy Gobert outplayed him.”
For the record, Perkins failed to bring this level of energy when players like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Edwards, and Jayson Tatum came up short in the postseason.
Elsewhere, other commentators played the “what if this were LeBron?” card to argue that Jokic is protected.
Paul Pierce was one of them:
“We’re not going to sugarcoat this one. Because if this was LeBron at the peak of his powers losing like this, this is what we’d say. We say today that Joker is the best player in the game, right? He might not win MVP, but he’s the best player,” Pierce argued. “We’ve said this for the last three or four years, right? Let this have been LeBron at the peak of his powers. What would we have been saying? If you’re the best player in the league, you’re not supposed to lose in the first round.”
Dan Patrick made the same case.
“If this was LeBron, a three-time MVP and one-time NBA champion, bowing out the way Joker did, we’d be crushing LeBron,” Patrick said Friday.
Pierce and Patrick’s remarks are not racially motivated. However, their comparisons to James are weak. They are misleading.
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LeBron James was criticized more for his shortcomings than Jokic because he was also praised more for his success. James is a daily topic on talk shows during the postseason. By comparison, Jokic is rarely mentioned, even amid his historic six-season run.
James is arguably the most famous American athlete of the past 20 years. Jokic, despite his greatness, isn’t even one of the five most famous NBA players today.
Further, James was at the center of a decade-long debate about whether he or Michael Jordan was the greatest of all time. No one has ever compared Jokic to Jordan. At most, there have been rumblings about Jokic cracking the top 15.
Complaining that Jokic doesn’t receive as much criticism as James is like pointing out that Patrick Mahomes faces more scrutiny for playoff losses than Jalen Hurts. The bigger the star, the fiercer the backlash.
So before someone says it, no, Jokic is not protected because he is White. As noted earlier, Jokic is far more Great White Villain than Great White Hope.
A normal conversation today would revolve around whether Jokic is still the best player in the NBA and whether the Nuggets have surrounded him with enough talent. The answer to the latter question is clearly no. Whether Jokic is still better than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Victor Wembanyama is a real debate.
Instead, the gloating from the race idolaters and the forced LeBron comparisons have hijacked the conversation. But that says more about the state of sports media than it does about Jokic.
