Nikola Jokic had already firmly established himself as the best basketball player in the world heading into the 2024-25 season with three NBA MVP trophies, one championship, and one NBA Finals MVP already under his belt before he turned 30 years old. Jokic faced one of the biggest challenges of his career this season with the rest of the Denver Nuggets’ roster starting to crumble around him. He’s responded with arguably the best season of his career.
Nikola Jokic and Magic Johnson’s highlight reel has stunning similarities
Nikola Jokic and Magic Johnson are linked by more than just triple-doubles
Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Jokic is third in the NBA in scoring, first in rebounds, and second in assists to start the new season. He’s operating at huge 30 percent usage while scoring with sky-high efficiency (65 percent true shooting). The Nuggets go from one of the best teams in the NBA when he’s on the floor (+10.51 net-rating) to the worst when he’s on the bench (-15.28).
Jokic’s three MVPs tie him with Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Moses Malone all-time. If he wins his fourth this year — and he’s the big front-runner right now — he’ll join LeBron James, Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only players with four or more MVPs in league history.
On Thursday night, Jokic recorded his league-leading ninth triple-double in Denver’s close loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was Jokic’s 139th triple-double all-time, moving him past Magic Johnson and into third place in league history. The NBA used the occasion to celebrate the similarities between Jokic and Magic, and it’s downright eery how some of these moves feel like a carbon-copy of one another. Watch the Jokic/Johnson supercut here:
Jokic is too young to have ever watched Magic live, but it’s clear the versatility, creativity, and high-IQ that pulsed through Johnson’s game are finding a modern reincarnation through the Nuggets star.
There are also a lot of statistical similarities between Johnson and Jokic. Box score plus/minus is an all-in-one stat that estimates a player’s impact on the court. Jokic and Johnson each in the top-5 in NBA history in the metric:
Only 12 players in NBA history have ever averaged at least 19 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists for their career. Jokic and Magic are both on the list.
Magic has an ironclad case as a top-10 player in league history. Jokic is getting there, too.
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