Even After Winning The Title, The NBA Media Is Still Trying To Find Ways To Discredit Nikola Jokic

AAron Ontiveroz. Getty Images.

If there's one thing we can say for certainty when it comes to Nikola Jokic, it's that he breaks people's brains. I've honestly never really seen anything like it. During his MVP years, more time was spent trying to justify why he shouldn't be the MVP compared to actually appreciating the greatness we were watching. Butthurt fanbases that saw their favorite player lose to Jokic in the MVP race cried on and on about VORP and analytics and the eye test blah blah blah. 

This past season, it reached new heights as to why Jokic couldn't be the MVP. One day it was because he only gets votes beause he's white, then it was he couldn't win another regular season MVP because he didn't have a postseason title, then it was his defense, then it was he had too many kicked ball violations, it was about as toxic as it gets.

So one would think that after Jokic's dominant regular season and then even more dominant postseason

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That finally, FINALLY, everyone would finally cut the shit when it came to slandering Jokic or trying to discredit what he's done on the basketball court. Just accept it. Why is that so hard? What more could you possibly need to see from Jokic before you just accept defeat with that stuff? 

I ask because even now, even with Jokic getting the job done, we're STILL dealing with this shit from some in the NBA media

I'm starting to think Mannix might not be a Jokic/Nuggets believer. Remember, this was also him before the Finals even started

which is ridiculous in its own right. But this latest clip? I simply do not understand the rationale.

It is not Jokic's fault nor it is a knock against him that other teams could not win in the postseason. The Bucks choked, the Celtics chocked, Joel Embiid and the Sixers choked. The Lakers (who Mannix picked to win the whole thing) got swept by…the Denver Nuggets. What Mannix is essentially doing here is attempting to put an asterisk on the Nuggets title and Jokic's run because they didn't face other players/teams? What? I mean, they still went through LeBron/AD and then Booker/KD. That's not nothing. 

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Would we say this about any other 2x MVP and now Finals MVP who just had the type of run Jokic had? People would call that guy an all time great player right? How do we currently talk about Giannis, who also has 2x MVP and a Finals MVP? Do we not consider him an all time great because of his playoff path? The Nets getting hurt, Trae Young getting hurt in the ECF, being able to play PHX in the Finals and not the Clippers who lost Kawhi, the list goes on and on.

All the guys he mentioned were not good enough to make the Finals and win a title. If they were, they would have made it to face off against Jokic. I just can't understand how that's his problem or why that should be factored in when talking about his run or what it means for his status as a player. He just completed the one thing that every media pundit had been screaming he needed to accomplish, and then once he does it the immediate take away is somehow

"eh, pretty good I guess, but he didn't have to play against a team that lost in the 1st round so how good is he really?"

Make that make any sort of sense.