Before the champagne popped and Serbian dance music pumped through the Nuggets’ locker room late Monday night, the most indelible moment from the NBA Finals came with Nikola Jokic on the bench.
Time was fading fast on Miami’s season. The Nuggets had already survived their most vulnerable stretch of Game 4, with Jokic in foul trouble, and now the franchise cornerstone was relegated to the sidelines as a defensive strategy. Up 14 with less than 1:30 left in the game, Bruce Brown had Duncan Robinson on an island. He dribbled through his legs three times, crossed over and hopped to left. There were still five seconds on the shot clock.
On the far baseline, Jokic leaned back and tossed his hands out in disbelief at the shot. It was the same condemnation he saves for officials. As Brown sank the dagger, holding his stroke as the realization of a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals set in, Jokic excitedly lashed his towel three times at Miami’s hardwood.
There’s nothing that brings Jokic joy like seeing a teammate thrive.
If there’s one enduring lesson about Jokic’s legacy (which is still being written), and his dominance (which is undeniable), it’s that he derives the most happiness from others’ success. It’s not only that he prefers to view basketball from a team prism instead of an individual one; it’s that he’d rather re-route any acclaim than absorb it himself.
After the Nuggets secured their first-ever NBA championship on Monday night, as Jokic paced them with a team-high 28 points, the Finals MVP was asked who he was most happy for. He couldn’t choose just one.
“I think it’s all of them,” he said. “I’m happy for DJ. I’m happy for Jeff. I’m happy for Ish. Literally for everybody. Mikey, he had three surgeries and still came here and helped us win a championship. Jamal, who had surgery and didn’t play well at the beginning of the season, like I told you guys, but we all know what he’s capable of. KCP, he brought us the championship, Bruce, Christian Braun. Literally every single player. Every player on this team.”
Jokic’s unabashed joy almost always is the residue of team success.
After Game 4, when Aaron Gordon bulldozed his way to a playoff career-high 27 points, Jokic gushed about the sacrifices he’d made since arriving from Orlando in 2021. There, he’d been a star, tasked with facilitating, scoring, defending and leading. But that wasn’t what the Nuggets needed when they acquired him. Jokic recognized how he needed to subvert his ego for the betterment of the group.
“He’s playing a different role, and that’s why he sacrificed himself and that’s why he’s a great teammate,” Jokic said. “… I think if you sacrifice yourself for something bigger than yourself, the team, whatever, he sacrifices himself, and that’s why I think the one upstairs gave him the game today.”
When the Nuggets ousted the Lakers in a four-game sweep, culminating in their first trip to the NBA Finals, the first person Jokic thought of was Murray. His point guard had to endure the pain of two consecutive playoffs rehabbing his torn ACL instead of helping the Nuggets realize their goals. Jokic recognized his persistence and valued his patience.
Fast-forward to that seismic Game 4 in Miami, and Jokic was again gassing up Murray. On a night where the Heat blitzed him incessantly, Murray switched gears and cut the Heat apart with his passing. His 12 assists to zero turnovers marked a high-point of his development and unearthed another weapon in his arsenal. Not only had Jokic proven unguardable but his point guard had been, too.
“I think that’s where you see the growth, and like you said, maturity in his game,” Jokic said. “I think he was amazing today. Yes, of course he was shooting 5-for-17. Of course, some nights you miss, some nights you make. But he’s our leader, and we are following him.”
Despite marching through the postseason nearly averaging a 30-point triple-double, it’s a refrain and a hierarchy Jokic has established between himself and Murray numerous times.
In Game 3, when the Nuggets initially wrested homecourt advantage back from Miami, Jokic was not interested in the attention. He and Murray had become the first pair of teammates to ever record 30-point triple-doubles, in any game in NBA history, yet that’s not where he poured his praise.
He saved it for a rookie, whose energy, effort and impact were indisputable. Christian Braun scored 15 points in 19 minutes, each backdoor cut more debilitating than the next. Jokic recognized how his relentlessness swung the game.
“I told him, ‘You won us the game,’” Jokic said. “Like you said, he’s a winner, and he won us the game, with energy, just the focus, the mindset. Even when he make a mistake, it’s an aggressive mistake, so you cannot be mad at him. I always say that.”
After Denver’s Game 3 win, former Nuggets guard Monte Morris made his way to the court to embrace his former teammates. Jokic reserved his biggest smile of the night for Morris, who was a casualty of the Kentavious Caldwell-Pope trade. The embrace was genuinely heartfelt. Morris’ presence was a testament to how Jokic’s teammates, current and former, feel about him. Jokic’s reaction was as wholesome as if Morris was still on the team.
“I played with Monte a long time,” Jokic said. “Then when Jamal got hurt, we had really good connection on the court, I was always good with him on the court. Even my family, he was always around. He’s a guy who I really like as a friend. Really funny guy. You can talk to him about anything.”
Morris was there in Game 3, for the same reason Gary Harris was there in Game 4. And for the same reason Jokic got texts from Jameer Nelson and Wilson Chandler, two of Jokic’s early veteran teammates. What the Nuggets built under former president Tim Connelly and current GM Calvin Booth was an organic culture of accountability and togetherness. Whether they’re still with the team or not, there’s a reason so many former players and front office members have relished this championship run. It’s because Jokic never once made it about him.
It was fitting then, that when a Serbian dance party in the Nuggets’ locker room raged into the bleary hours of Tuesday morning, Jokic remained behind the scenes, preferring to let others revel in their triumph.
During the off day in Miami between Games 3 and 4, Jokic was asked whether this stage amounted to the most important moment of his career.
Jokic’s response showed who he is at his core: unselfish, unassuming and humble.
“I mean, definitely it is because we have Jeff (Green), we have Ish (Smith), we have (DeAndre Jordan), who have been in the league a long time. Okay, Jeff one time was in the Finals. DJ played with a really good team, Ish played with a lot of good players, good teams, and they never made the Finals. It’s maybe now or never.”
In that moment, Jokic’s individual legacy was irrelevant. What mattered were his teammates and securing a ring for those who might never get another chance. It’s rare to have Jokic’s vision, but it’s even rarer to see one’s accomplishment beyond the scope of one’s self.
Jokic’s legacy is that he can do both.
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