"He's Magic AND Bird, and America hates him?” - NBA analyst believes Jokic would be more popular if he went to Duke
Nikola Jokic has been one of the best NBA players over the past few years, yet he's still not very popular. His dominant performances have helped the Denver Nuggets reached their first NBA Finals, and Jokic is only three wins away from winning a championship.
Despite being one of the league's best players, Jokic still doesn't have as many fans as some other players who are worse than him. In fact, many basketball fans even dislike him.
Dan Le Batard, a popular sports analyst, recently said that the Nuggets center would have been much more popular if he wasn't a foreign player.
"He's Magic and Bird, and America hates him. What?!" Le Batard said on his podcast.
Nikola Jokic may have been more popular if he was an American
Nikola Jokic is from Serbia. He was born and raised in the European country and did not play college basketball in the United States. Because of this, many NBA fans were not familiar with him when he entered the league.
Dan Le Batard believes that Jokic is still affected by this. If he was American, things would have been much different for him. He even compared the Denver Nuggets superstar to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, two NBA legends.
"You got a player who is foreign," Le Batard said. "If he were American, good God, would he be a star."
Dan makes the case that if Nikola Jokic were an American who went to Duke, the country would love him.
"He's Magic AND Bird and America hates him? WHAT?" – Dan
"He's not aesthetically pleasing to watch. It's a garbage game, that's what it is. I don't want to watch myself play… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… https://t.co/jTQyTu6QBK
Le Batard also praised Nikola Jokic's skills, saying how he's tearing apart the league simply because he can. Le Batard, who lives in Miami and was a longtime Miami Herald reporter, is also a big fan of the Miami Heat, yet he's aware that Miami cannot do much about the Nuggets star.
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Not only is Jokic foreign, but he plays for the Nuggets, a mid-sized market team. Because of this, he'll likely never get as much recognition as other stars, like LeBron James, Steph Curry and others.
After averaging 24.5 points, 11.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists per game, Nikola Jokic was one of the finalists for the MVP award. However, the award went to Joel Embiid.
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In two games against the Heat, Jokic is averaging 34.0 ppg on 60.0% shooting. He's been nearly unstoppable in the series, and it'll be interesting to see how he'll respond in Game 3 in Miami.