Nuggets coach Michael Malone might find recent criticism of center Nikola Jokic laughable if he didn’t find it so far off-base.
ESPN basketball analyst Kendrick Perkins recently accused Jokic of “stat padding.”
“Maybe they’re just tired of this player — a non-athletic player from Sombor, Serbia — who continues to kick everybody’s (behind),” Malone said Thursday after Nuggets practice. “Maybe people have a hard time with that. I don’t know. He’s not doing anything to pump his own numbers up. It’s just not in his nature. It’s silly to think otherwise.”
Entering Friday night’s game against Memphis at Ball Arena, Jokic was averaging 24.