(Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
These days, most consider Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic the best basketball player in the world.
He just led the Nuggets to their first-ever NBA championship while winning the NBA Finals MVP award, and in the two seasons prior, he also took home the regular season MVP trophy.
But of course, nothing is absolute, and there are some who aren’t on the Jokic train.
One of those doubters is Toni Kukoc, a former forward for the Chicago Bulls who is originally from Croatia.
He feels that although Jokic is an excellent player, he hasn’t accomplished as much as a few other European-born players, at least not yet.
There have been some awful hot takes on #Nuggets Jokic, but Toni Kukoc tops the list.
Ironically, Toni is the most overhyped Euro to ever play in the NBA.
BTW, Jokić did something Toni and these guys have never done, he let his team to a title and won consecutive MVPs. pic.twitter.com/zVcV1BRpmZ
— Eric Goodman (@EricGoodman) September 15, 2023
Three of the other foreign players Kukoc mentioned as being more accomplished than Jokic are Arvydas Sabonis, Vlade Divac, and Drazen Petrovic.
Sabonis was a legend in Europe during the 1980s years before he came to the NBA as a broken-down, faded version of what he used to be.
Petrovic became an NBA star in the early 1990s before he died in a tragic car crash in 1993 when he was just 28 years of age.
Divac had a very long and productive NBA career, but before that, he played professionally in the former Yugoslavia as a teenager.
All three helped pave the way for foreign superstars such as Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Luka Doncic, as well as standouts in the 2000s such as Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, and Tony Parker.
Jokic is just 28 right now, so he could have another five years plus to add to his resume, and by then, he has a shot at becoming the most accomplished NBA player ever who wasn’t born on American soil.
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