{"id":289432,"date":"2025-11-17T01:51:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T01:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/289432\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T01:51:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T01:51:13","slug":"nba-legend-dirk-nowitzki-shares-glowing-nikola-jokic-take","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/289432\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Legend Dirk Nowitzki Shares Glowing Nikola Jokic Take"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Denver Nuggets have been on a tear to start their 2025-26 season, winning ten of their first 12 games as they sit in second place in the Western Conference, trailing only the Oklahoma City Thunder. Of course, this incredible start to the season has largely been carried by Nikola Jokic, who has put together some unbelievable performances. <\/p>\n

The three-time MVP center is averaging 28.7 points, 13.0 rebounds, 10.8 assists, and 1.8 steals per game, but more impressively, is shooting 67.2% from the field and 42.6% from three-point range. <\/p>\n

Jokic’s efficiency has been historic to start the season, and as he continues to make this type of impact, he cements himself as one of the greatest players in league history. Jokic even received some recent praise from NBA legend Dirk Nowitzki, arguably the greatest international player the NBA has ever seen. <\/p>\n

“He\u2019s incredible. With the lack of athleticism, you really have to say that he’s arguably the best player in the world. Just skill level out of this world. How he reads the game, his basketball IQ, it’s just incredible,” Nowitzki said about Jokic in an interview on Haymaker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, Jokic has cemented himself as one of the best players in the world, finishing top two in MVP voting in each of the past five seasons, but Nowitzki giving him that title is certainly a big deal. <\/p>\n

Nowitzki explains Jokic’s greatness<\/p>\n

“He’s just\u00a0so big and overpowering with little guys.\u00a0See, with me, you could always get away\u00a0with guarding me with little guys… but he is just so big that\u00a0you cannot guard him with little guys.\u00a0He just makes it impossible. And he’s so\u00a0good as a rebounder, too,” Nowitzki continued.\u00a0“And with the big guys, he just draws\u00a0them out. You can post them, you can\u00a0draw them out, run the pick-and-roll. He’s\u00a0got the three-point shot now.”<\/p>\n

\"Dallas<\/p>\n

Jan 16, 2018; Denver, CO, USA; Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki (41) guards Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) in the second quarter at the Pepsi Center. | Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Hall of Fame forward admits how Jokic is a much tougher matchup than he was, and that is notable coming from a 14-time All-Star who revolutionized the game. <\/p>\n

“What impresses me is how he reads the\u00a0game, and the passing is just next level.\u00a0So I’ve always been a fan, obviously, of\u00a0his game, how he plays the game,” Nowitzki finished.<\/p>\n

Jokic continues to earn love from the legends that came before him, especially as he represents the new era of European superstars, similar to Nowitzki. <\/p>\n

More Denver Nuggets Content<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Denver Nuggets have been on a tear to start their 2025-26 season, winning ten of their first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-289432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}