The Meaning Of This Moment
Three Nuggets players on three different types of mindfulness
If this season has taught Nuggets fans anything, it’s that expectations are the thief of joy.
Denver is 48-28, twenty games above .500. They will finish with their 7th 50-win season of the Jokic era, after only 10 such seasons prior, including the ABA.
Their best player will finish on the MVP ballot top five for the 7th time in his career, a remarkable achievement, and collect his 8th All-NBA selection.
Jamal Murray will finish as an All-NBA selection1 for the first time in his career after his first All-Star appearance.
The Nuggets not only have the league’s best offense but also the best halfcourt offense since Synergy Sports began tracking nearly 20 years ago.
The Nuggets remain in an unparalleled era of success for their franchise.
It is totally understandable to want Jokic to collect three titles to cement himself among the Greatest of All Time and to cash in on this era with more championship success. It is natural to be frustrated that a season many felt could be their best ever with this roster will fall between four and seven games short of that.
But life is a series of moments, and while fans are constantly looking ahead to next month and the beginning of the playoffs, players have to survive the grueling 82-game grind on both their bodies and spirits in their own ways.
Here are three examples of why it’s so crucial for players to stay right where they are instead of constantly looking towards games that may never come.
NIKOLA JOKIC: SOMEDAY NEVER COMES
Throughout the last few seasons, as Denver became a championship contender, the media naturally checked in with Jokic on how he was feeling about things. Joker is oftentimes brutally honest about the state of affairs, whether the team is playing well or not. 2
His response has become more and more consistent: “We’ll see.”
Some stars exude constant confidence; it’s essential in their minds to always believe they can find a way to achieve their goals.3
Jokic is a realist. Things are what they are. I wanted to know if the last few seasons, going from a defending champion favored to repeat losing in Game 7 to last year’s disaster, to the good offseason last summer, and all the injuries this year, have helped shape him in never looking ahead.
"Yeah, I mean, I don't believe in that ‘Oh we're going to (win it all)’,” Jokic said recently.
“First of all we we still have seven more games. Who knows what's going to happen in those seven games, who we are going to play in the matchup, this and that? And then the team we are going to play, maybe somebody's going to get injured. Maybe, I don't know, something's going to happen. Maybe they're going to have a bad stretch, maybe we're going to have an extremely good stretch.
“I think it's really hard to say ‘Oh yeah, we're going to have amazing playoffs’, because you cannot know what's going to happen, how the team is going to feel, it’s basically month to month.”
What Jokic is getting at here is how delicate fate can be. The Nuggets were absolutely rolling in 2024. I will maintain they were the best team that season.
But Jamal Murray suffered an injury that hampered him. The Nuggets came out flat against the Wolves in Game 1, then had an unforgivable letdown in Game 2 in what is always a bounce-back spot for the home team when Rudy Gobert was out.
They climbed all the way back to Game 7, only to gas out in the 4th quarter.
Last season, they had a miserable nightmare of a season that resulted in their coach and GM being fired just days before the playoffs. Yet they took Game 1 in OKC after going seven games with the Clippers, only for both Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr. to suffer significant injuries, leaving them no chance to complete the upset.
The lesson for Jokic is that you don’t know what plot twists will happen between now and then, so worrying about it or proclaiming things doesn’t mean anything.
" I think in this season we lost some games that we shouldn't lose, and we won some games that we shouldn't win,” Jokic told the Post’s Bennett Durando in a follow-up to my question. “So I think it's hard to predict and hard to say. Like when we won a championship, we lost the last three games in the season or four or whatever, and we won a championship.”
“So I think, and then we can maybe have five in a row and lose in the first round, whatever. You do not know so, and I don't like to look in the future like that.”
“It’s not just how I am. That's not how I work."
JAMAL MURRAY: LIVING THE DREAM
Jamal Murray saves the arrow for certain moments. After having the nickname Blue Arrow for years as a young player, Murray stopped his traditional arrow celebration for a few years, but has started to bring it back.
I love the callback; it’s like a pro wrestler coming out to his old theme music or a music artist playing one of his big hits that he stopped playing for years.
After reaching the Nuggets record for most threes in a season, Murray reached back and let it fly against the Jazz. Without realizing that was the shot that set the record, I and a colleague chuckled at Murray breaking out the arrow for a comeback game against the Jazz.
But later, Murray turned to the crown and celebrated, amping up the Ball Arena faithful.4 And after the game on my way down the stairwell to the media room, I realized that these moments still do matter to players.
Every NBA game is hard. Some will doubt that, after all, the Jazz’ fourth quarter exploits in pursuit of a high draft pick were explicit, hilarious, and disturbing. But even then, you had Ace Bailey making tough shots, good ball pressure from the young guards, and professionals still playing well to stop Murray and they couldn’t.5
Murray is in his prime, having a career-best season, setting franchise records. It’s good that he’s able to celebrate these moments with this city that has embraced him, where he’s won so much and lived up to his potential to become a champion, the player he always believed he could be.
After the game, I asked Murray if he tries to hold onto these moments.6
“I remember every single time I yell at the crowd,” Murray said.
“So it’s just a good feeling when when they they cheer you on and they know what's coming and they know I'm going to shoot some tough shot and probably make it.”
“You know, it's just this sense of… I don't know how to explain it, a sense of confidence in somebody when you see them do it over and over and you know I gain more confidence as they yell more and appreciate it more.
“So it's just fun to have those interactions and and lift up the crowd and win the games and all that
It's a pleasure. It's stuff you dream about. Living the dream."
