Nikola Jokic has been showered with praise over the last year or so, but Kevin Garnett might have given him the greatest compliment he has ever received. Garnett thinks Jokic is more dominant now than even Wilt Chamberlain was.
“What Joker's doing in our league, not even athletic, he jumps probably this high," Garnett said on the Ticket & The Truth podcast. "... He’s ripping the records apart. I think P, they showed a stat where he’s had a triple-double on every team in the league... Right now, Joker is more dominant than Wilt Chamberlain."
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Garnett also stated that Jokic is his pick for MVP. The Serbian certainly does not fit the profile when we think of the most dominant players. As Garnett pointed out, he isn't exactly the best athlete around, but he still manages to stamp his authority on games.
Jokic has put up impressive averages of 25.9 points, 12.2 rebounds, 9.2 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game this season for the Denver Nuggets. His triple-double against the Washington Wizards on Feb. 22 meant the 29-year-old had recorded one against every team he had faced in the league, as Garnett mentioned. It is a phenomenal accomplishment and shows how dominant he has been.
Is Jokic More Dominant Than Chamberlain?
While I showered Jokic with all that praise, I am not sure you can say he is more dominant than Chamberlain was. At his absolute peak, Wilt was a force unlike any other in NBA history.
Chamberlain was a ridiculously gifted athlete for a man who stood at 7'1" and that combined with his skill allowed him to dominate on the court in a fashion that few others have. In the 1961-62 season, he averaged 50.4 points, 25.7 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game.
In the first six seasons of his career, Chamberlain averaged 40.6 points, 24.9 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game, which is just mind-boggling. Now, it was a different era, of course, but none of the other great players of the time even came close to putting up those numbers on a consistent basis.
While there might come a time when Jokic is considered to be a greater player than Chamberlain, I am not sure if he'll ever be thought of as more dominant than him. There is really only one other man who is in that conversation with Chamberlain and that's Shaquille O'Neal.
Kevin Garnett Praised Nikola Jokic For Being Humble
Garnett is not only a fan of Jokic's game but also of the person he is. After his incredible 2023 playoff run where he led the Nuggets to the title, Garnett said Jokic is the humblest motherf****r he's ever seen.
"Joker looks like the most humblest motherf****r I've ever seen," Garnett said on the Ticket and The Truth podcast. "I've never seen a player who's won the NBA championship and he was just dormant. He was more into his daughter... He's a one-of-one. I've never seen this. I've never seen the championship picture being taken with your best player in (the) third row of the picture."
Jokic has always come across as quite a humble character and has never been one to toot his own horn. He lets his game do all the talking for him and boy does it talk. The six-time All-Star silenced a lot of his critics with that playoff run last year and I wouldn't put it past him to have another magical one in 2024.
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