Nikola Jokic modeled his game after several Spurs power forwards

Following a Game 1 win against the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals, Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic sat down with the NBA TV crew and asked by former Spur Steve Smith who he modeled his game after. After joking it was Shaq, he went on to say that while he didn’t watch much NBA basketball growing up, when he got to the NBA, he listed three Spurs in Tim Duncan, LaMarcus Aldridge, Boris Diaw, plus Dirk Nowitzki.

Interestingly, if you look at different aspects of all four of those players’ games, you really can see a conglomeration of them in Jokic. Duncan’s postgame, Aldridge and Nowitzki’s turnaround/midrange games, Diaw’s fluidity and passing, etc. Nuggets head coach Mike Malone has also compared Jokic to Duncan, with them both being known as selfless superstars. As much as it feels like these types of players — selfless, fundamentla but not flashy, etc. — are being forgotten and underrated at times by fans and the media, especially Duncan, it’s good to know the best players in the NBA still remember and admire them.