Nikola Jokic is now only three wins away from his first NBA title after he and the Denver Nuggets beat the Miami Heat 104-93 in Game 1.
After winning, the Serbian was in a good mood, so when asked who he modeled his game after, he laughed that it was Shaquille O’Neal. Jokic then went on to say who his real role model was.
“To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to the NBA back in Serbia,” Jokic said. “Dino (Radja), Peja (Stojakovic), Vlade (Divac), and Drazen (Petrovic) were like the first European or ex-Yugoslavian players to make it to the NBA. They opened the door for everyone else.” But when I got here, it was guys like Timmy Duncan, LaMarcus Aldridge, Boris Diaw, Dirk Nowitzki, and the like.
Drazen Petrovic and Dino Radja earn a lot of credit for making it possible for people like Jokic to get in. Boris Diaw’s style of play is probably the most similar to Jokic’s that we’ve seen in the NBA.
Diaw was a versatile forward who was a very good passer for a guy his size. In 2005-06, when he played for the Phoenix Suns, he had a career-high of 6.2 APG. Jokic is a much better version of Diaw. In these playoffs, he is scoring 29.8 PPG, 13.1 RPG, 10.5 APG, 1.1 SPG, and 0.9 BPG. With the exception of Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki, it’s safe to say he’s done better than everyone he named there.
Michael Malone He was compared to Tim Duncan.
Aside from his skills, what makes Jokic stand out in the NBA today is that he doesn’t act like most champions. He is very modest and doesn’t care much about the fame that comes with being one of the best players in the game.
His head coach, Michael Malone, said that he is like Tim Duncan in that he is a superstar who doesn’t care about himself. Tim Duncan was a superstar for the San Antonio Spurs. Jokic has said that he wants to be the Tim Duncan of the Nuggets, but he also said that for that to happen, he needs to win a couple of titles. It looks like he will come close to reaching that goal this year.
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