By The chance to win an NBA title doesn’t come around very often.
It can take years, sometimes even decades, for all the stars to align for a franchise to build a competitive roster. Even when they do, injury misfortune can instantly derail a team’s title dream.
For the Denver Nuggets, selecting a little-known Serbian called Nikola Jokić with the 41st pick of the 2014 NBA Draft – famously during a fast food commercial – catapulted the franchise into championship contention.
Around 10 years later, Jokić has become arguably the best player in the world and will undoubtedly go down as an all-time NBA great when he retires.
Jokić, a three-time MVP, led the Nuggets to their first title in franchise history in 2023, but the defending champions were dumped out in the semifinals by the ascendant Minnesota Timberwolves last season.
“The Joker” turns 30 in February and with each passing season, the window to add more NBA titles to his resumé gets smaller. That’s why Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said he “never” takes Jokić’s “greatness” for granted as the pair attempt to retake their NBA crown.
“I grew up in this business,” Malone told CNN’s Bijan Hosseini in Abu Dhabi ahead of the Nuggets’ opening preseason game defeat to the Boston Celtics, the defending NBA champions. “My father was a coach and when you’re around greatness like that, they don’t come along very often.
“I’ve been blessed in my NBA career to be around great players like Nikola, Steph Curry, LeBron James. Now a guy like (new signing) Russell Westbrook, a future Hall of Famer, and you appreciate their greatness, their consistency.
“But the one thing I’d say for everybody with Nikola: he’s an even better person. He’s never changed. The MVPs, the championship, he’s still the same guy. I love his humility and I love how he comes to work every single day to try to get better.”
And they will have to get significantly better, too.
The Boston Celtics were by some distance the best team in the regular season last time out, before going on a dominant run in the playoffs to secure the franchise’s first title since 2008.
In an attempt to revamp their roster, the Nuggets have added veterans Westbrook and Dario Šarić. Malone says the energy from his players in training and preseason has been “outstanding,” adding: “That’s what we talked about … don’t take this window for granted, attack it and let’s see what happens.”
But there is also the small matter of navigating the notoriously difficult Western Conference, which is looking particularly stacked with talent this season. Malone says it’s the toughest he’s ever seen.
“Obviously every year is a new journey, a new opportunity,” he said. “You have the highest victory, first franchise championship in 47 years. Disappointing loss last year. So now that motivates you to come back even better.
“The parity and the depth in the Western Conference … you can make a case that six teams in the West could win the championship and you wouldn’t be surprised. It’s loaded. Each team’s got two, three really talented players.
“The coaches all do a great job, so everybody thinks it’s going to be easy to just get back to the championship where you have to put yourself in a position by fighting through an 82-game, grueling season – and the West is loaded.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said this season should provide “incredible competition.”
Silver told CNN: “We’ve had six different champions over the last six years. My colleague Joe Dumars – who was a champion as a player, champion as a general manager in this league, and has a long-time horizon in the league – said he doesn’t remember a time when so many teams felt they had a shot to be the champion.”
The Celtics have spent big this year, re-signing all of their key players to contract extensions as they look to extend their title window.
Among them is Jrue Holiday, whose masterful defensive capabilities helped guide the Celtics to the title in his first season in Boston.
But not content with last season’s triumph, Holiday says the team is “always” hungry for more and the “plan” is to go back-to-back.
“I think that’s always the goal,” the 34-year-old told CNN in Abu Dhabi. “We did a pretty good job last year, have somewhat of the same team, but I think to be able to lock in and do it again is the goal.
“I think winning is always the goal, always the option every year that I’m going to play.”
