INDIANAPOLIS — Not 20 seconds had passed since the end of Nikola Jokic’s news conference when the dark curtain behind Luka Doncic’s adjacent media session parted, revealing a 6-foot-11 figure. Jokic snuck up on his unsuspecting friend and poured the remnants of a water bottle down the back of Doncic’s neck.
As the Dallas Mavericks point guard winced and then grinned, Jokic stealthily disappeared again behind the curtain.
In a room of NBA All-Stars, there might’ve been something symbolic about the Joker’s prank: the lurking in the shadow of a fellow MVP candidate, the wordless display of personality while other celebrities in the room were holding court, the fade into the background.
Even now that he’s widely considered the best basketball player in the world, even now that he is a defending champion at All-Star weekend — the only defending champion at All-Star weekend — Jokic is still seemingly overlooked when lined up next to his contemporaries. As usual, he’s OK with that.
“I’m not the face of the NBA, my friend,” Jokic said this weekend when he was asked if he’s trying to embrace that title this season.
What about the commercials alongside Nuggets teammate Peyton Watson? The new signature shoe deal he signed in December?
“With all the commercials, it’s just part of the job,” Jokic said. “It’s something that goes with being a player or being famous or whatever.”
Jokic, of course, famously resents his fame. But other All-Stars apparently agree with his self-assessment about “face of the league” status. One of the most frequently asked and incongruently answered prompts of this weekend in Indianapolis focused on the generational shift in NBA superstardom. LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry have a combined 44 All-Star selections between them, but they’re all 35 or older.
As much as it speaks to their historical significance that they continue to hold the spotlight in 2024, the more intriguing matter is who will steal it.
“There’s a lot of guys to pick from in this group of 24 that are here,” Curry said. “You see Luka, Ant (Edwards), Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander). Guys that are really coming into their prime, and they’re highly decorated already as All-Stars and (All-NBA) guys, but have a perspective, I guess, of what that means within the on-court, off-court opportunities with the doors that basketball opens.”
James, at 39 still a dean of the sport to the extent that he had his own pregame news conference before Sunday’s game, dodged naming any specific players to succeed him when he retires (whenever that may be).
But Durant — whose admiration for Jokic’s talent is well-documented — also didn’t think to name Jokic while in stream-of-consciousness mode at the podium.
“I think each era has five, six, seven guys that can help carry the game forward,” Durant said. “Push the game forward. It’s more than just Steph, LeBron and myself. It’s the James Hardens, the Russell Westbrooks, the Kawhi Leonards, the Paul Georges. A lot of these guys who inspired the next generation of hoopers to want to be professionals. It’s more than just a few guys. So I look around the league and you see … it’s a lot of guys, but Shai, Ant, Book (Devin Booker), Luka, Tyrese Maxey, Tyrese Haliburton. It’s so many guys that are inspiring the next generation of hoopers after them to become basketball players, that you can’t just pinpoint it to one or two guys.”
What’s clear from those comments is that Jokic’s role in selling the NBA has reached an unusual juncture — not that his reputation for the stuff that matters (hooping) is under any scrutiny. Winning a championship is typically a turning point for a star player’s “marketability.” But last October when TNT advertised two premier games to tip off the new season on opening night, Jokic was missing from the graphic that was aired on television and posted on social media. The four players shown were James, Curry, Durant and Jayson Tatum. Tatum wasn’t even playing in either opening-night game on TNT.
However reluctantly, the NBA and TNT, which owns the rights to All-Star festivities, have embraced that Jokic is billboard material since then. His face was plastered on signs, marquees and video boards around the freezing city of Indianapolis this weekend. The Joker was everywhere from the airport to the Center Circle Mall. Yet his actual presence around town was kept more private than other Western Conference standouts. Gilgeous-Alexander, who’s challenging Jokic for the MVP crown, made multiple public appearances Saturday related to endorsements and sponsorships.
Jokic showed up for his mandated media availability after All-Star practice, answered a handful of questions about his horses, pranked Doncic and then was gone. His family traveled with him for the weekend.
“I don’t know,” Giannis Antetokounmpo said to the face-of-NBA question. “We have Victor (Wembanyama). We have Nikola, but he doesn’t want to be really the face either.”
While warming up for Sunday night’s main event, Jokic was a chatterbox with his layup line partner, Curry. An errant ball rolled to the logo at mid-court, so Jokic asked a referee to pass it to him at the top of the key. He casually no-look touch-passed it to Paul George on the wing. Then he found another ball and attempted to posterize Curry, needing to use his hand on Curry’s back as a launch point. They laughed about it afterward.
Maybe that’s the most appropriate lens through which to view Jokic’s interaction with Doncic. The best player in the world doesn’t want to be the face of the NBA. He’d rather be the class clown.
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