00:00There are some people who seem to be a bit confused what it means to be the best player in
00:09the world.
00:12What that means is you are held to the highest standard in the league.
00:20And when you are considered the best player in the world in the prime of your career, and it's a
00:30career that people believe is one of the 10 greatest in the history of the sport, you cannot go out
00:41in round number one the way Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets did.
00:49And the rewriting of history that is going on is beyond belief.
00:56I'm hearing about how the Denver Nuggets are a 35-win team without Jokic.
01:03They went 11-6 without Jokic.
01:06The Thunder went 8-6 without SGA.
01:11Oh, the Thunder, their roster's awful.
01:14Or excuse me, the Nuggets roster's awful.
01:16That roster was applauded as it was being built this offseason.
01:21Everybody thought the Cam Johnson-Michael Porter Jr. swap was a triumph, a triumph for Denver.
01:29It was a huge mistake.
01:31But we were led to believe that they've really figured something out here.
01:35But the thing is, none of that matters.
01:40It doesn't matter that the Nuggets entered this series as minus 300 favorites.
01:47None of it matters.
01:49Because they were down 3-1, Jokic was playing some terrible basketball,
01:55and then every guard on Minnesota was injured.
02:01From Ayo Desunmu, who dropped 40 in this series.
02:05Dante DiVincenzo, who's been a reliable starter for a couple of seasons now in Minnesota.
02:12To the best player on the Wolves in Anthony Edwards.
02:16Not that he'll ever hear this, but hey, Bill Simmons.
02:20Did Aaron Gordon getting injured mean more than all of the Wolves?
02:24No! No! You can't do that, man!
02:28No! Aaron Gordon and his injury, okay, does not wash away a completely unacceptable result for the Nuggets.
02:39And what you saw out of Nikola Jokic is when he is not playing at a supernova offensive level,
02:51it's really damaging to have him out there.
02:54Because it is open season at the rim.
02:58I mean, there isn't an...
03:01He's not...
03:02Jump! Jump! Jump!
03:04You're 7! Jump!
03:06Get off your feet and jump!
03:09Try and block something!
03:12Instead of watching Jaden McDaniels call you soft,
03:16and then score his career high on you to close you out in 6!
03:24Nikola Jokic is a three-time MVP who has been to two conference finals.
03:33That is wildly unacceptable from the Joker.
03:39And if you want to blame all of that on the guys around him,
03:45then stop praising Jokic for not caring and just loving his horses.
03:53Because if it's everybody's around him's fault, then maybe he should care more, okay?
03:59And apply some pressure to the front office outside of giving a thumbs up to the Russell Westbrook signing from
04:07a season ago.
04:08It is unacceptable for Denver, for Murray, for Adelman.
04:15But it is mostly unacceptable for the guy who last year played SGA in a series,
04:23was outplayed in the series, lost the series,
04:28Shea won MVP, finals MVP this year, will win MVP, is favored to win finals MVP,
04:34and nobody cared and still called Jokic the best in the world.
04:37If that's you, then this can't happen.
04:40And it did, coach.
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