Glass Ceilings

“If your thoughts are as tall as the height of your ceiling, you can’t fly above your room.”

– Israelmore Ayivor

I’d played soccer for ten years when my last coach came into my life. With that much time and practice under my belt, I though I had a pretty good idea, not only of the game, but of my abilities in it. But the coach who had me those last five years had played the game at the professional level, and completely reshaped how I saw the game, its strategies, and what I was capable of inside that redefinition. What I thought had been my ceiling was now actually my floor, and I spent those last few seasons playing at a level I’d not imagined possible. It was nothing shy of thrilling.

When the Serbian Quesarito (nickname patent pending) went 41st in the second round, so very little was known of him, and so very little was expected. Nikola Jokic snuck into our basketball lives and hearts while he was sleeping and we were all dreaming about fourthmeal. He’d shown some impressive raw skills to even get onto scout’s radar, but even the most optimistic saw him has a functioning role player for a team in need of some backup big help.

His first season, Jokic saw time in 80 of 82 contests, but was certainly not thought of as a starter in that rookie year. He showed enough flashes of promising things that he did start several of the season-closing contests that first season, but only after the team had given up on the playoffs and was giving the youth some play. Joker had at least shown he belonged on the court, and could hang with the pros, hanging a +24 on Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs in a start near the end of that rookie campaign. Jokic had shown he could stay on the floor. But his ceiling? Probably still a backup center, or maybe the right piece on a very unique starting five.

In his second season, Jokic’s fortune changed as his game improved. The flashes he’d shown that first season were so much more consistent that second-year coach Michael Malone placed a huge bet on his second-year, second-round center and made Jokic his starter about a third of the way into that year. The team’s fortunes turned around, and the Nuggets finished a few points shy of playing their way into the playoffs. Jokic was now seen as a quality starting center, and a nice piece to start making some plans around. But his ceiling? He’d probably need an alpha around, as his easygoing ways and still-round form just weren’t the types of attributes that would carry any team to the promised land.

But none of that was enough for Nikola. Season after season, game upon game, Jokic has taken it upon himself to add to his abilities, to polish his game, his playmaking, his physique. By last season, everything coalesced, and while Nikola played every contest of last season, player after player fell away with injuries, troubles, or issues. By the end of last season, the lowest-drafted and least-sexy MVP in league history had made his case obvious. There really was no other choice, with Jokic nearly a unanimous MVP selection. The Quesarito had blossomed into a… I don’t know, a Chalupa? What a horrendous metaphor. The least-likely MVO candidate in years had blossomed into the only obvious choice for the award, the first winner of it in Denver Nuggets history. His ceiling? Most Valuable, indeed.

So when Jokic lifted the entire Nuggets squad onto his shoulders this season without his two strongest sidekicks, something would have to give, right? Wrong, apparently. The Joker continues to outpace last years award-winning campaign, putting up numbers that are not only audacious, they’re historic. Jokic is not climbing the All-Time triple double list at a pace that is incredible looking at his past output. He’ll be in the top five by season’s end if he stays apace. If he continues getting the team wins at this pace, he’ll also need a little over a season to lead the franchise in wins-shares as well. He just crossed over 10,000 points, 5,000 rebounds, and 3,000 assists faster than anyone but Larry Bird, still taking less minutes, and probably looking at a lot more longevity than Larry Legend. He’s on track to not only be the greatest Denver Nuggets player to ever take the floor, but probably one of the finest players the league has ever seen, period. His floor? No longer a Taco Bell commercial. His ceiling? Why guess? He’ll probably simply shatter that one as well.