Denver Nuggets superstar center Nikola Jokic is about to play in the NBA Finals for the first time and has won back-to-back regular season MVPs, yet he is still underrated and underappreciated.
Los Angeles Lakers fans got to witness just how excellent Jokic is during the recent Western Conference Finals in which his team swept the Purple and Gold while he posted three triple-doubles.
Perhaps in a fortnight or so, he will start to get his flowers, but for now, some are still skeptical that he’s for real.
One of those skeptics seems to be former Lakers center Dwight Howard, who said he would take his prime self over Jokic.
In his prime, Howard wasn’t a super-skilled offensive player, although he managed to average over 20 points a game in four seasons. But it was defensively and on the boards where he made his name. He led the NBA in rebounding average five times and won three straight Defensive Player of the Year awards in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Still, although Howard will, in all likelihood, end up in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, he was simply never on Jokic’s level.
Story originally appeared on LeBron Wire
