Come on man, we gotta have all his highlights in a separate thread. Cannot comment on Wilt or Russell or anyone before the 90s, but easily Jokic is the best center and that includes Olajuwon. Dream vs. Jokic peak is a discussion for sure, but looking at what he’s accomplished, what he does, how easy he makes it look, this is the best center I’ve seen in terms of longevity, talent and it translating to wins too.
Hakeem would slap Jokic around…y’all really need to stop this nonsense and absurd levels of glazing Hakeem was putting up quadruple doubles in a much tougher era for Centers and tougher era to rack up stats Joel Embiid the last 2 times he faced Jokic dropped 47, 18, and 5 and 41, 7, and 10 on his head, and he’s no Hakeem there’s hardly any C’s in today’s game that make Jokic work for anything plop Hakeem into today’s NBA and see what he averages
I like the name of the thread and i fully support the idea of having a deserves his own thread thread trend.
How will history look at Jokic if he doesn't win a few more championships and another MVP? He'd need people to view him as they view Wilt. He's the only other player I can think of who dominated statistically and was the most talented player but did not win significantly. Even if the gap between him and the next-best players is still as massive as it is today in 3 years, he'd still need a championship or two to overtake Wilt, Shaq, or Hakeem. Russell and Kareem would require three more championships. Or you look at him like we look at Wilt today and overlook his lack of championships.
Old enough to remember when this same fanbase said he was unplayable during those regular season games against MVP Beard. https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201811130DEN.html People now standing on the table for him would have wanted him outta here when he was 23. He turned out aiiight.
The ringzzzz crowd most likely won't consider him a top 5 player if he ends with 1 ring. Every player only gets 1 career so basically they get a sample size of 1, meaning a lot of the result is just luck/variance. What would people thing of KG if he didn't ask out and win in boston? What if jerry west didn't give Pau to the lakers to help kobe and he ended with 0 rings as the best player? What if harden/kyrie don't get hurt against the bucks in 21, than giannis never sniffs a ring and the legacy of harden/KD is wildly different with a 16-2, 16-3 type playoff run. What if Jamal Murry doesn't tear his acl costing the nuggets 2 playoffs? Pretty decent chance they win one of those 2 years, especially since the nets got injured. My favorite one is what if lebron decided to just never leave the cavs? Does he ever win a ring? Maybe he gets one, but he's never sniffing the 4 he has.
That conversation would be tedious and useless. It's right to focus on the what is instead of the what if because it's what we know. Wilt is out of most of the top five lists, which is good. Jokic needs to win more, or he was just a dominant player who didn't get his team titles. Wilt didn't win enough because he had to play against Russell and the Celtics and because he couldn't get over himself; Jokic probably doesn't win enough because of the rosters he played on and because of his defense. Maybe that's unfair, but it's better than endless what if conversations.
Wilt played before there was real basketball so i don't really care about that. Jokic has never played with anyone who has been an allstar level guy or sniffed all nba. If you want to ignore context and just go ringzzzzzzzzzzzzz that's fine, that's how a large % of nba fans are so you would get a lot of agreement.
Sure, and if basketball was one on one like tennis, it would be valid instead of being idiotic drivel.
Might be the best ever individual statistical profile over a 5-year period. According to B-R.com, he has an average 31.8 PER over the last 5 seasons (including this one). Beats any 5 year period by Jordan, LeBron, or Wilt. Only 1 championship though. He'll need to win a couple more to be in the GOAT conversation, but the stats are there.
I am pro plumbers and electricians so whoever is putting up better stats against these guys is my pick of goats
