During the 2015-16 season, Bill Walton began to get emails about Nikola Jokic, then a Nuggets rookie center from Serbia. The Hall of Fame center didn’t know much about him at the time, so he began to pay close attention.
Walton watched highlights of Jokic on the Internet. He sought out Nuggets games on television.
“People had started sending me emails and video clips just out of the blue, saying, ‘You got to check this guy out,’’’ Walton said. “So I watched and I said, ‘This is fantastic. I need more of Nikola Jokic. He’s a thing of beauty. He’s a wonder of nature.’’’
Walton has become a huge Jokic fan. During a 45-minute phone interview this week with The Denver Gazette, when asked the first question about the Nuggets star, he spoke for 9 straight minutes.
“I’m the luckiest guy in the world to be able to talk about one of my favorite players,” said Walton, 70, who has met Jokic on several occasions.
It should be noted that the title of a four-hour ESPN “30 for 30” on Walton that got underway Tuesday and will conclude next Tuesday is “The Luckiest Guy in the World.”
Walton played in the NBA from 1974-87, winning championships with Portland and Boston and claiming an MVP trophy in a career that was mostly bogged down with injuries. Walton, who is now a popular ESPN college basketball analyst, has been glued to the NBA Finals on television. With Denver holding a 2-1 lead, Jokic has averaged 33.3 points, 14.0 rebounds and 9.3 assists in the series, including an historic triple-double of 32 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists in a 109-94 win in Wednesday’s Game 3.
“He’s a dream player,’’ Walton said. “He’s a unique player who is changing the way that the future of basketball will be played and he’s just so smooth, so graceful, so skilled, so talented, so brilliant in his ability to see the play before it happens. And in my life, those guys were Pele in soccer, Joe Montana in football, Larry Bird in basketball.
“He’s a big guy who in a game that historically has been dominated by winners of the genetic lottery, plays a game different from almost everybody else. He can do everything from pass, rebound, shoot, run the floor, dribble, set screens, call the plays. … He plays a team game. Getting stats for him is like breathing, but he’s not interested in stats, he’s interested in wins.”
The 6-foot-11 Jokic was named the NBA’s MVP in 2021 and 2022 and finished second this season to Philadelphia center Joel Embiid. During the regular season, he averaged 24.5 points, 11.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists.
Jokic has drawn comparisons to the 6-11 Walton for his passing ability as a center, although Walton said he doesn’t get into comparing players to himself. He likened Jokic in that regard to a point guard in Hall of Famer Steve Nash, a two-time MVP who played from 1996-2014.
“Nikola and Steve Nash are the same,” Walton said. “Steve had trouble at the beginning in the NBA and all of a sudden becomes the greatest player in the world and is absolutely spectacular. And so many of the things that Steve Nash did, that’s what Nikola does, too, but what Nikola has also is the size and the strength and the power. And he’s so smooth like the smoothness of a river.”
Wait a minute. Did Walton just compare Jokic to a navigable waterway?
He did more than that. In fact, Walton likened the eight-year veteran to a number of notable geographical features in Colorado.
“Colorado is a launching pad to the universe and Nikola Jokic’s game is like the universe,’’ said Walton, who has been to Colorado many times and has biked throughout the state. “There are so many fantastic places in Colorado. And when you think of Nikola Jokic, you think of greatest and beauty.
“You think of Big Thompson Canyon, Teddy Roosevelt National Forest, Long’s Peak, Lookout Mountain, Idaho Springs, the Arkansas River, Red Rocks, Grand Junction, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Telluride, Durango, Silverton, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Pagosa Springs, Dinosaur, Green River.”
Walton later reeled off a few more state sights. He compared Jokic’s shooting stroke to “one of the spectacular waterfalls of Colorado.”
Walton is well-known for being a “Dead Head,” a diehard of the Grateful Dead, which has morphed into Dead & Company. He pointed to the group playing at Folsom Field in Boulder on July 1-3 and suggested Jokic should attend, perhaps as part of a championship celebration. And Walton not surprisingly offered some comparisons between Jokic and the legendary band.
“It’s like when I go to a Grateful Dead concert, today Dead & Company, there are unlimited possibilities as to what can happen,’’ Walton said of watching Jokic. “And they’re all good, which is what I’m looking for.”
Walton made reference to Jokic and the Grateful Dead song, “Standing on the Moon.”
“While I’m standing on the moon, it’s a lovely view from heaven, but I’d rather be watching Nikola Jokic playing in a game at Ball Arena,” Walton said.
Game 4 is Friday night in Miami, and Walton said he is considering coming to Denver for Monday night’s Game 5. Asked if he might need a ride from the airport, Walton, in a nod to his free-spirit days as a player, said, “I’m still a pretty darn good hitchhiker.”
While Walton keeps busy during the basketball season calling college games, he has watched Jokic play live on several occasions. He first saw him early in his career at a game in Los Angeles in which Walton’s son, Luke Walton, was coaching the Lakers. He said it was “just so beautiful” watching Jokic warm up.
Walton also saw Jokic play at NBA All-Star Games in Cleveland in 2022 and in Salt Lake City in February. While he has met him for several quick chats, he would welcome talking to him more.
“I need to spend more time with Nikola Jokic so I can learn more about life and how to become great,’’ Walton said. “But I’m the luckiest guy in the world because I’m alive in the Nikola Jokic era and will forever be able to say, ‘I saw Nikola Jokic. Wow. What a player.”’
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