Nikola Jokic or Chris Pratt?
Recent footage has surfaced of Nikola Jokic looking like the Chris Pratt of the NBA. For those of you who are unaware, Chris Pratt lost a ton of weight in order to portray Starlord in Guardians of the Galaxy. I have not personally seen the movie, I know I’m lame get over it, but I know he did a solid job and apparently the weight loss transformation was unbelievable. As is the same for Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic.
I had the pleasure of attending a Celtics vs. Nuggets game at TD Garden this year, where some people in the crowd took it upon themselves to heckle Jokic with some of the following phrases: “I can feel you running from all the way up here!”, “Looks like a level 8 earthquake in Boston tonight!”and even “Lose some weight you whale!” Now while I do not condone this kind of heckling, even from irrelevant Boston fans, I can admit that Jokic may have been a tad overweight at the start of the year. Oh who are we kidding, the dude was a truck, and not in the good way. Yes it was talked about, but the reason it wasn’t talked about as much as it should have been is because he was, and is, still an amazing basketball player.
I mean, the guy very well might be the best playmaking center in the history of the NBA. He was averaging 6.9 assists before this season got cut off, and averaged 7.3 for the entirety of last season. His statline last year was 20.1 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 7.3 assists per game last year, and was barely in the MVP conversations. How is that even possible? Not to mention he led the Nuggets to a 2-seed in the Western Conference. I mean the past is the past, but Jokic has been having an amazing couple years. Then that brings us to the present. Jokic looks at least 30 pounds slimmer in these pictures, and that terrifies me.
Imagine the same basketball IQ, the same floor vision, the same shooting touch, and the same feel for the game but with an athletic body. I mean the guy might mess around and put up 30 a night. He’s got the post moves and skill to pull it off so you never know. Just like Chris Pratt slimmed down for Guardians of the Galaxy, maybe Jokic slimmed down to dominate the rest of the 2020 season. People thought we could see a deep playoff run for the Nuggets before we saw the new Jokic. Now? I’m scared.
