The greatest center of all-time does not get blown out 149-106 in a playoff game.
The best current player in the NBA doesn’t commit six fouls and six turnovers while his team is humiliated on national TV.
Nikola Jokic had a career-worst night at a bad timeGettyThere is no doubt that Nikola Jokic has won three MVP awards and could soon capture his fourth.
But Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was easily better than The Joker on Wednesday night, Oklahoma City torched the Denver Nuggets, and Jokic haters are having a field day in the social-media follow up.
“He was not elite,” one fan tweeted.
“Overrated,” a second fan posted. “The real free throw merchant. When he don’t get them bull**** calls, he isn’t that impressive.”
“This y’all MVP?” a third fan wrote.
“His worst game ever?!” a fourth fan said.
According to plus/minus, it was.
Jokic was a horrendous minus-36 in the 43-point blowout, and he fouled out before OKC’s hardwood damage was done.
“Basically it was one team playing tonight,” Jokic said.
If Michael Jordan ever said that during the playoffs, the lopsided quote is lost in time.
Jokic fouled out and committed six turnovers in a Thunder blowout win GettyShai Gilgeous-Alexander won the MVP debate in Game 2[/caption] GettyShaquille O’Neal vs Jokic would create even more hardwood debate[/caption]Compare Jokic’s post-defeat helplessness to the Game 2 strength of SGA, who was almost perfect with 34 points, eight assists and four rebounds on 11-of-13 shooting from the field and 11-of-11 from the free-throw line.
“We knew what was at stake,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
“We came out desperate. We wanted to just take care and control the things that we knew we could.”
The Thunder led 45-21 after the first quarter, scored 87 points before halftime, and made a three-time MVP appear more ‘overrated’ than Tyrese Haliburton.
Throw in OKC setting team and league records on the same night that Jokic posted the worst plus/minus of his 10-year career, and it’s easy to see why some of the NBA’s biggest media names still refuse to crown a three-time MVP as a true all-time great.
“I want you to hear it from me first: I thought the SGA should’ve been the MVP,” Shaquille O’Neal told Jokic on live TV last year.
Gilbert Arenas calling Jokic the “worst MVP in 40 years” was 100-percent absurd.
But there was some truth to Kendrick Perkins recently wondering whether Jokic is really the best player in the league in 2025.
Denver fired its head coach and general manager days before the end of the regular season, using a torch light to signal that all is not well with the Nuggets.
After it took a full seven-game series to get out of the first round, Denver was blown out by almost 50 points in Game 2 against Oklahoma City.
There can be an odd bias against Jokic in the media, ignoring his brilliant passing and surreal stats.
The three-time MVP averaged career highs in points (29.6), assists (10.2), steals (1.8) and 3-point percentage (41.7) this season, putting up video-game numbers and redefining big-man efficiency.
Kendrick Perkins has doubted JokicGettyThe NBA is also far less physical than it used to be, while a barrage of 3s have redefined the game.
It’s easy to imagine Shaq dunking all over Jokic – and it’s just as easy to picture The Joker shooting over Superman past the top of the key.
Jokic will surely turn his Game 2 disaster into a career blip.
He averaged a triple-double this season and only trails Gilgeous-Alexander in current MVP odds.
But a minus-36, six fouls and six turnovers for one of the “best players of all-time” in a playoff game?
Jokic will hear a few more ‘overrated’ chants the next time he’s back in Oklahoma City.
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