Nikola Jokic just admitted, out loud, that he’s getting ruder to fans who ask him for pictures, and for a three-time MVP eleven years into the grind, saying that without flinching might be the most honest thing said in the NBA this summer.
He laid it out on the Jao Mile Podcast, in comments first flagged by Yahoo Sports: “I’m getting ruder to people who approach me. Honestly, it’s tiring… Some people around me know I don’t take pictures because it’s my time. I’ll sound rude again, but what can I do?”
Nobody workshops a line like that for headlines.
That’s a guy who ran out of patience with being treated like a mascot with a jump shot.
Jokic is done pretending fame doesn’t wear on him, and he made that clear again talking to The Big Lead: “I miss it so much. I’m getting more and more bothered by popularity… it’s been 11-12 years and enough is enough.” Eleven, twelve, however he’s counting it, that’s over a decade of strangers with phones deciding they’re owed a piece of his night, and he’s done pretending the bill never comes due.
The résumé backs up why this matters. Denver drafted him 41st overall in 2014, a full round after everyone else stopped paying attention, and he’s entering his twelfth season as the least guardable seven-footer on the planet. Three MVPs put him in a club of nine players ever, and just three since 1990: him, Jordan, and LeBron. That’s the résumé behind a guy getting ruder to fans who stop him at dinner these days, and the numbers say he’s earned the right to be annoyed about it.
None of this happens without the very fans he’s tired of, and I’ll admit that’s the part that complicates my own take here. The jersey sales, the League Pass renewals, the corporate suite that funds a max deal, all of it exists because people care enough about Nikola Jokic to want a piece of him. He knows that better than anyone watching from the couch. Doesn’t mean he owes a stranger with an iPhone thirty seconds of his night just because they bought a jersey.
This isn’t new territory for him, either. He’s been just as blunt about turning down $278 million from Denver, so softening the message for strangers wanting a selfie was never going to be his style.
Between that and the fabricated trade rumors that keep following him, Jokic has already spent this offseason swatting away noise that has nothing to do with basketball. Getting short with fans on top of it isn’t shocking. It’s just the next thing on the pile.
The internet reacted about how you’d expect. Split about fifty-fifty between “good for him” and “must be nice.”
https://twitter.com/TheDunkCentral/status/2098412626426351710
Half the replies treated an all-timer admitting he’s exhausted as a personal betrayal. Which, buddy, was never about you specifically.
https://twitter.com/FearedBuck/status/2098428337341223327
I play rec ball in Hoboken on Tuesday nights, I’m not good, and I’ve still had a stranger ask to guard me so he could post the highlight. Multiply that by three MVP trophies and eleven years of nightly strangers, and Jokic’s math checks out fine.
Enough is enough. Just don’t ask him for a selfie about it.
