Nikola Jokic is ready to be a basketball player again, rather than a basketball fan (and coach).
Those 16 games off with a knee injury? They weren’t as mentally refreshing as one would think.
“Watching just a game, it was taking so much of my energy,” he said during his first media availability in more than a month. “I was yelling at the TV when I stayed back in Denver, and then, like, in the games (I was attending), I was so emotionally empty after the games. And then I decided the last two games, I’m just gonna try to chill and watch the game.”
Jokic made a triumphant return to the court Friday at Ball Arena, leading the Nuggets to a 122-109 win over the red-hot Clippers. Checking out to a standing ovation with two minutes to go, he finished with 31 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and three steals in 24 minutes. He scored all of Denver’s points during an 8-2 run to pull away late in the fourth quarter, then punctuated his evening with a behind-the-back pass to Peyton Watson for a dunk.
Jokic became the first player in NBA history to amass 30 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in fewer than 25 minutes. Nuggets coach David Adelman said he could have played about three more minutes “at the most,” but that wasn’t necessary. Foul trouble also helped limit the three-time MVP’s minutes.
“You miss playing. You miss the pressure. You miss the adrenaline. Just being out there with the guys and trying to win a game,” Jokic said. “It’s a collective that I missed. This hasn’t happened for me probably in my career. So it was an interesting feeling.”
Indeed, this was the longest stretch of games Jokic has ever missed in the NBA. He hyperextended his left knee last Dec. 29 in Miami, causing a bone bruise that sidelined him until the Nuggets’ last game of January.
They went 10-6 without him — 8-2 in games that involved clutch time, 2-4 in non-clutch games. Plenty of stress for Jokic to endure from the sideline or the couch. Meanwhile, he was navigating an injury rehab process that was unfamiliar to him.
“It was a new thing for me, so I was getting nervous. Not nervous. Yeah, nervous. Because I didn’t know the steps,” he said. “I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, what I was supposed to feel. So it was a different kind of nervous. … It was a learning process for me, and I was happy the team played really good.”
Jokic explained that as he reached the end of his ramp-up process, he had an option to wait a little longer and test the knee in 5-on-5 workout reps before coming back. But he felt ready.
“I was not scared to use it,” he said. “I was not thinking about it while I’m running, while I’m playing, so I think that’s a good sign that I’m ready.”
Not to mention, “working out with Felipe (Eichenberger) really is not pleasant work,” he added, referring to the Nuggets’ head of strength and conditioning. “And I kind of sped up the process because I didn’t want to work out with him anymore.”
One thing Jokic did not miss while he was gone: his contractual media obligations. But he was happy to bring back his anti-Felipe comedy routine, a staple of past injury reflections.
This one could have been much worse, based on the Nuggets’ initial dread at seeing their franchise cornerstone writhe in pain. Jamal Murray was quick to point out in Miami that he just hoped it wasn’t the same injury that had cost him two playoff runs in 2021 and 2022: a torn ACL. Did Jokic limp off the court and toward his MRI with any fear that his diagnosis could be season-ending? His answer invoked both science and religion, naturally.
“I didn’t know because I didn’t know what to expect,” Jokic said. “But I think whenever I do preparation during summer, that’s something that I really take pride in. And I really think the man from upstairs was protecting me. And he knows I did everything how it was supposed to be.”
Jokic can be notoriously stubborn about playing through minor afflictions, but his stats on Friday backed up his postgame testimony that his knee felt good. The Nuggets will host the first-place Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leading the MVP race.
The timing of Jokic’s return keeps him in the running for that and other end-of-year awards, even if MVP would be a tough uphill climb. When asked if the NBA’s 65-game minimum factored into his return, though, he assumed the same tone as usual: “Not even a little bit.”
