Nikola Jokic stays on brand during interview following historic performance

Of course, in typical Jokic fashion however, the Serbian big man seemed less than impressed by his eye-popping numbers during his postgame interview with ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt. 

Despite the best efforts of Van Pelt, he could not get Jokic to acknowledge the magnitude of his historic performance — not even a little bit. 

Van Pelt seemed almost amused by Jokic’s lack of enthusiasm regarding his performance. Throughout the interview, though, Van Pelt seemed determined to at least try to get some sort of a reaction from Jokic. 

After not getting much of anything from Jokic in response to his first question, Van Pelt followed up.

"Nikola, it's a 30-20-20," Van Pelt said to Jokic. "No one's ever done it. I mean, like, you make it look easy. Tim Legler, who’s calling the game, says, 'I’ve never seen anything like it.' I get that this is just kind of what you do. But do you appreciate for those of us watching it, we’re just kind’ve shaking our heads?"

Jokic responded by saying, "Um, I mean, thank you guys."

Ultimately, Jokic would go on to say later in his response that one day, when he’s retired, he will look back and say he had a good game. It was clear, however, that Jokic’s main focus following the win was not his stat line but rather how to prepare his body for the Nuggets’ upcoming back-to-back.

"We have a back-to-back in two days … I’m thinking how to get rest, how to recover myself," Jokic said.

Jokic being unfazed by his latest stat line or accolade is nothing new, and Friday night was ultimately just another reminder of that. Jokic has never been one to seek the spotlight or to look to sponge up or indulge in whatever praise is being thrown his way. Quite the opposite, actually, as Jokic’s disdain for his own celebrity and the off-the-court attention that comes with being an NBA mega star is well known. 

At this point, whether Jokic likes it or not, his level of stardom is out of his control. Despite coming off of three MVPs in the past four seasons, he’s somehow taken his game to yet another level this year, averaging a near 30-point triple-double. And while Jokic may claim to be unimpressed by himself, that sort of production is not going to go on unnoticed. 

At this juncture of his career, it may be fair to take Jokic at his word when he says he doesn’t care about individual awards, but if he continues to cobble together performances like the one he put up Friday night, he very may well need to make room in his trophy case for a fourth MVP in five years.