Fifty

“Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”

– John W. Gardner

Most tasks, no matter how complex they seem, can often be broken down into a series of simpler goals. This is especially true in professional sports, where complex sequences that seem outside the bounds of mere mortals can usually be broken down into more mundane bits and bytes. In Bull Durham, the intricacies of baseball were comically broken down into throwing, hitting, and catching the baseball. Is the sport more complex than that? You bet it is. There are strategies and nuances that keep even the best minds searching for new angles and levers. But if you are really good at throwing the ball, hitting the ball, and catching the ball, you’re usually a player in very high demand, indeed.

In basketball? Well, in basketball, you shoot the ball, you pass the ball, and you rebound the ball. In reality, there’s more to the game by an order of magnitude here as well. You can steal the ball. Block the ball. Defend the ball. Nuance and complexities abound. But if you are really good at shooting, rebounding, and/or passing the ball, you probably have a place in the NBA for as long you can keep it up. But what is “really good” in terms of numbers for each of those? Well, getting to double-digits in just about any of those categories is a pretty solid outing. While scoring 10 points isn’t something that will set the world on fire, you’re still recognized as a solid contributor to your team’s output. It’s a less-impressive stat than all the others only in that points usually come in two- and three-point bunches, so if you can knock down a mere three triples, you’re a free throw shy of your first “double”. Sound easy? Go find a pro-distance three-point line and knock three down. I’ll wait here.

Oh, you’re back already? You must be a better three-point shooter than I. But to notch a “double” in any of the other categories: rebounds, assists, blocks, steals, you build those up one at a time. Some are exceedingly rare. Having 10 steals in a game is so infrequent that the NBA record is only 11. 10 or more steals by a single player has only happened 25 times in league history. A “double” in blocks isn’t quite as rare, but has only happened 161 times ever as well. Most players end up building their “doubles” out of the basics. Scoring, rebounding, and assists. To have a double-double means you had a hell of a game. A triple-double? Your fingerprints are simply all over every moment you were on the floor. You did all the ordinary things extraordinarily well. Many players might have one triple-double over the course of an entire career. That game is the one they’ll regale their friends and families with for the rest of their lives.

But if you’re Denver Nuggets MVP candidate Nikola Jokić, a triple-double is about as easy as getting out of bed, and somehow about as interesting. Jokić finds himself in rarified air after having notched the 50th triple-double of his career, a feat only eight other players have achieved in league history, and one he managed faster than all but two of them. His pace at achieving them has also heated up considerably. The 50 over his career has him knocking down triple-doubles once every 11.5 games. This season? He’s averaging one in four.

Let’s go back to that list of eight others Jokić has joined. With his 50th, the Joker joins James Harden, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, LeBron James, Jason Kidd, Magic Johnson, Russell Westbrook, and Oscar Robertson. Every name on that list is either in the Hall of Fame, or a surefire bet to go in on their first ballot. Chamberlain, the only other center on the list, may have been the most transformative player to ever step on the hardwood. At his current pace, Jokic will pass him before the end of next season.

Not that he would care. Nikola’s sole focus for this Nuggets team is winning, with all other stats, accolades, and achievements a distant second. Twenty times in his career, he’s finished a rebound or assist shy of completing the trick, and couldn’t care less. If he were actually hunting the goal as many others do, he’d be closing in on Wilt already.

What does it all portend for the player who will quite probably go down as the best to wear a Nuggets jersey? If his career plays out as long as it looks like it should, he’ll easily become one of the six or seven guys in history to break a hundred. He could quite probably end up being one of the top three of all time, with only Westbrook (currently 156) and Robertson (181) seemingly out of reach. That Jokić could quite probably pass Magic Johnson (138), one of the most dynamic and influential players of all time, speaks volumes about what he has meant to this Denver Nuggets franchise. And what he will probably mean someday soon. Something even rarer.

There’s another 50 attached to professional basketball that is made up of even more rarified air. For their 50th Anniversary in 1996, the NBA made up a list of the 50 greatest players of all time as voted on by a panel of 50 professionals and media members. The list is of only the finest players at their positions, the ones who made the largest impressions and contributions over the course of their careers. Unsurprisingly, there is not a single Denver Nuggets player to be found. Though it’s now 25 years later, and the league would be more apt to have their top 75 after 75 years, Jokić is already arguably competitively amongst the lowest tier of players on that 50 list. By the time he’s done? Who’s to say?

50. 50 triple-doubles so far for a player who very well may end up being one of the 50 greatest ever to take the floor. For the first time in their illustrious history, Nuggets Nation has a player in the fold that is not only in the conversation of the moment, but might well end up being in the conversation of all-time. Ordinary things done extraordinarily well. How extraordinary.