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Steve Kerr: Nikola Jokic is ‘best center I’ve ever seen’
Steve Kerr: Nikola Jokic is ‘best center I’ve ever seen’
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has played and coached against a lot of great centers. From Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Shaquille O’Neal to Hakeem Olajuwon to Dwight Howard, who will officially be enshrined into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on September.
The list goes on. But according to Kerr, one stands out among the rest in terms of all-time greats: Current Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic.
“It’s unfair to compare eras, but he is the best center I’ve ever seen,” Kerr said. “I played against Kareem. So I’m kind of old; I think maybe one year I played against him, but I watched him obviously. Kareem couldn’t do all this stuff. And again, eras dictate a lot of that. So we’re in the modern era, and we are watching a guy who is doing things nobody’s ever done before.
“It goes so far beyond the skill level with Jokic. It’s the demeanor. It’s the competitiveness. It’s the intelligence. He is absolutely one of the smartest players ever, and you see it in so many different ways.”
Jokic has already building a case to being one of the best offensive centers before his career is over. He just turned 30-years-old in February and has already made seven All-Star teams, six All-NBA teams (four first teams), won three MVPs, an NBA Title (franchise’s first-ever) and Finals MVP.
His peak is beyond absurd, and it’s been a blessing to watch on a game-by-game basis. He’s averaging 26.8 points, 12.3 rebounds, 9.4 assists and 1.4 steals on 58.6/37.8/82.3 shooting splits over the last five seasons. This year, he’s averaging a 30-13-10 triple-double on 66.5 percent true shooting. His phenomenal blend of size, strength, touch and playmaking make him an elite offensive talent and one of the most unstoppable forces in basketball. All you can do as a defense is hope and pray.
To Kerr’s point, how one evaluates eras is subjective. If you wanted to say that Wilt Chamberlain or Bill Russell were better than Jokic, nobody would bat an eye, and vice versa. The same can be said about Kareem. There are top-flight talents in every era, and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.
But right now, we have the pleasure of watching an all-time one with Jokic. Appreciate it, because he’s doing stuff we haven’t seen with the kind of size and skill he possesses.
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