Records are meant to be broken, some happen sooner while others take some time. Nobody thought that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record would ever be broken but the world witnessed it in action last season at the hands of LeBron James. And now, Nikola Jokic is making strides of his own, surpassing the great Michael Jordan in the PER category.
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Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal recently went on to his official Instagram account to point out Nikola Jokic surpassing Michael Jordan. As per a tweet by Brett Usher, Nikola Jokic surpassed Michael Jordan as the all-time leader in PER or Player Efficiency Rating.
Shaq shares a wild Jokic stat pic.twitter.com/c8h7xMTIgE
— tragicpatek (@tragicpatek) January 21, 2024
This is a huge accomplishment for the Denver Nuggets’ star center. Even though Nikola Jokic has been making new records while breaking old ones for a while now, surpassing MJ in this stat sure is impressive given how long Michael Jordan led this category.
There is no doubt in the fact that Nikola Jokic is an amazing player. The 6’11 center plays the game at his own pace and it has always worked out for him. But it’s that very own style of gameplay that he possesses that has led him to the top in PER.
When looking at the Serbian basketball star in action, it does not seem like Jokic is a player who is going for stats. Yet, by the end of the game, The Joker has multiple rebounds, and assists, that too with barely any turnovers. This just goes to show his efficiency on the floor.
PER or Player Efficiency Rating was a term coined by John Hollinger and is considered one of the most important stat categories by many. As per Hollinger, “The player efficiency rating (PER) is a rating of a player’s per-minute productivity.” In essence, it is a statistic that calculates a player’s overall contributions towards their team in a game and puts a number to it.
PER basically boils down to a player’s productivity on the floor in one number. The PER stat or category takes into account the player’s points, assists, rebounds, blocks, steals, number of three-pointers made, and other remaining categories. Then it also subtracts things like turnovers, fouls, missed shots, missed free throws, and more.
So, when boiling down Nikola Jokic’s numbers, the 27.92 outcome that Jokic has now is due to his consistency on the offensive end of the floor his reliability on defense, and the remaining factors of the game.
Will Michael Jordan’s stats and records be erased from the history books soon?
Nikola Jokic surpassing Michael Jordan in the PER category must’ve been news enough. But there is another stat where the Joker has managed to quietly sneak by Air Jordan and it is the BPM category, as per basketball-reference.com
BPM or Box Plus/Minus is how players get evaluated on the basis of their box score. It helps in determining the quality and the contribution of a single player to the team, broken down to play by play.
The Denver Nuggets center who brought his franchise their first NBA title has been garnering praise from multiple former players and even analysts. Even Charles Barkley had some big compliments for the two-time MVP and how he has been performing lately.
Based on how the Nuggets are playing this season, accompanied by Nikola Jokic’s stellar games night-in and night-out, don’t be surprised if he ends up knocking off a few more NBA legends off the record books.
