Former Denver Nuggets stars Austin Rivers and Bruce Brown claimed in a feature piece for The Athletic, that the first thing they heard after reporting for practice in Denver was to keep their hands ready. Both Brown and Rivers were initially confused by the suggestion, but soon received the memo after fumbling one or two of Nikola Jokic‘s surgically threaded passes during a practice scrimmage. Jokic has established himself as one of the most elite passers in the league over the past few years, even giving the best guards in the NBA a run for their money. However, Shaquille O’Neal recently used his clip with an 18-year-old Kobe Bryant to claim that he was a better passer than the Joker back in the day.
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Nikola Jokic has redefined the role of the traditional center into a point center, based on the needs of the modern NBA. The 28-year-old Serbian has perfected his perimeter shooting and mid-range jumpers to go along with his exploits in the paint. And to top it all off, the Joker has developed the incredible ability to dish out video game assists to his teammates to make open shots. The admixture of all this has made him almost unguardable, which became very noticeable in the 2022-23 season.
Shaquille O’Neal claims he was a better passer in his prime than Nikola Jokic
Shaquille O’Neal recently commented on a clip on Instagram, which showed him dishing out a clever pass in the paint to a rookie Kobe Bryant back in 1996. The caption of the clip read, “Rookie Kobe, Shaq pass better then Joker, no cap.” Shaq co-signed on the caption in the comment section, writing, “yes i do.”
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Shaq on passing better than Jokic pic.twitter.com/1P0krMfEiR
— tragicpatek (@tragicpatek) July 23, 2023
There is no doubt that Shaq is probably the most dominant player to ever play in the NBA. In fact, he was the domineering presence in the Lakers’ three-peat campaign from 2000 to 2002, putting up all-time numbers in the postseason. However, the big man never averaged more than 4.6 assists per game in his postseason career. During his championship campaigns, the highest dimes per game Shaq averaged was 3.2.
On the other hand, Jokic averaged 9.5 assists this postseason in the Nuggets’ 2023 Championship campaign. Therefore, Shaq’s argument certainly lacks the backing of raw numbers. However, one may argue that the Lakers legend was a more gifted passer than the Joker, it’s just that the game at the time didn’t require his services as a passer that much. But that argument doesn’t do well when the impact of Jokic’s passing is taken into consideration.
Jokic’s elite passing sealed the deal for the Nuggets
Perhaps the biggest issues teams faced while trying to contain the Denver side this year was stopping the open shots the Nuggets players were making. In fact, opposition coaches had to basically pick their poison-either let Nikola Jokic go on a scoring rampage or concede open shots from the rest of the Nuggets squad.
Because whenever teams double-teamed Jokic inside the arc, he managed to dish out precisely threaded passes to his open teammates around the perimeter. On the other hand, covering up openings allowed the two-time NBA MVP to run circles in the paint.
While Shaq’s passing ability might not be something to laugh at, it’s difficult to see him impacting the game to a similar extent with his dimes. Therefore, the big fella might be a bit off in his assessment on this occasion.
