Nikola Jokic and Michael Malone’s NBA fates will forever be intertwined.
Malone was the coach who decided to give an awkward pass-first center from Serbia the keys to the Denver Nuggets franchise. Jokic never becomes the best NBA player in the world, a three-time league MVP, without him. Malone was the coach who helped Jokic construct one of the NBA’s healthiest team cultures (well, before it crumbled at the end). They won a title together. That means a hell of a lot. Until Wednesday night’s win against the Sacramento Kings — where interim coach David Adelman made an immediate bold decision — Malone was also the only NBA coach that Jokic knew for a near-decade.
Knowing all of this history, you’d understand if Jokic had played with a heavy heart after one of his most essential basketball mentors was fired. Knowing Jokic, you’d also understand that it would likely be difficult to read his emotions as the Nuggets turned the page on a new era. That’s just how he usually is.
Predictably, Jokic did mostly keep his cards close to his vest in a decisive 124-116 victory over Sacramento.
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But if you saw how completely engaged Jokic was, you realized how important Wednesday was to him.
You saw it in how focused he was with his Denver teammates for 48 minutes; how he made it a point to act more like a player-coach expressly because the other Nuggets needed their leader to step up in a tough spot; how he channeled the Nuggets’ newfound spirit after they finally played for each other again. It was some of the most joyful, free basketball he has played in five months, perhaps longer. At a certain point, it became obvious that Wednesday evening was a seminal moment in the story of one of the finest pure basketball players of all time.
The “beast” inside seemed more awake than ever.
Jokic will never be one to admit it outright, but I’m certain he took Malone’s firing as a personal failure.
Even amid a transcendent individual season where Jokic might finish averaging a 30-point triple-double, I’m positive he blames himself for Malone getting the axe. As preposterous as it sounds, he might have thought that he actually didn’t play well enough. That he didn’t lead well enough the way he was supposed to. That he wasn’t present for everyone else as the Nuggets season went on a nauseous roller-coaster ride. That he let the cloud of Malone and ex-general manager Calvin Booth’s petty internal beef eat away at his basketball joy with an emotional burden he, in turn, unfairly passed onto his Nuggets teammates.
This thought process would be reductive, of course. Jokic was not the one to blame for the Nuggets’ internal strife. At least by himself, anyway. But that’s how true leaders think about these sorts of things. They take responsibility even when a mess isn’t all their fault. They make it a point to elevate everyone else when they’re down in the dumps and confused about what might be a murky future, which is the case in Denver right now.
All night long on Wednesday, without the coach who helped shape him into the player he is today, Jokic was at full bore. He never stopped talking on both ends of the court, even more than you might see in other bog-standard situations. He was constantly in his Nuggets teammates’ ears, providing constructive criticism or actively encouraging them to keep doing the little things, like simply boxing out and communicating more on defensive switches and rotations. He gave more effort on defense as an obvious path to get everyone else to follow his lead, which unsurprisingly translated to a sounder and cleaner Nuggets team defensive effort.
When someone like Jokic, who isn’t exactly known for his fleet feet in open space, is battling more on defense, it becomes a matter of pride for everyone else to say, “OK, if he’s expending more energy, then so will I.” You either hop on that train or get out of the way.
The Nuggets weren’t going to throw this opportunity away. They decided to let their MVP take them for a ride.
Wednesday was one of the most challenging and emotional nights of Jokic’s career. At the age of 30, now at or near the peak of his powers, he’s without the coach he grew up in the NBA with. No matter what happens for the Nuggets over the rest of this year, it seems evident that dramatic changes in the form of roster and coaching turnover are on the way this summer. He is in a new chapter of his already legendary NBA career, and unfortunately, he doesn’t have a compass or map to navigate this tumultuous journey.
For anyone, that’s a lot to process and handle all at once.
But in the face of this external (and internal) turmoil, Jokic responded like a superstar. While everyone waited with bated breath to see what his response would be without Malone, Jokic made a clear, powerful statement. In spite of whatever fate has in store, the Nuggets remain his team. He’s committed to revitalizing them as best as he can.
He’s not about to let their season, or their future, go to waste.
