It’s always fun to hear how NBA players and coaches talk about guys on other teams. Here’s the Denver Post reporting Gregg Popovich’s words about Nuggets start center Nikola Jokic:
Legendary Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is more ornery than complimentary and more evasive than honest.
That’s why, even after Nikola Jokic’s 25-point, 11-assist clinic against the Spurs on Aug. 6, his postgame testimonial came as such a shock.
“He’s like a reincarnation of Larry Bird,” said Popovich, who two years ago scoffed at the suggestion Jokic was revolutionary.
“When I think of revolutions, I think of people like Che Guevara, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin,” he said in December 2018. “I don’t really think of Jokic as revolutionary, so I think you’re a bit hyperbolic there. But he is one heck of a player.”
The Nuggets in the first round will face a short-handed Jazz team that will be without forward Bojan Bogdanovic for the duration of the the playoffs due to injury, and point guard Mike Conley for at least a game or so, as the team waits for him to return from Ohio following the birth of his son.
