At this point, Nikola Jokic’s brilliance has become routine.

The three-time NBA Most Valuable Player has been a statistical anomaly for most of his 10-year NBA career to the point that his exploits hardly come off as a shocker to anyone. After all, Jokic owns career averages of 21.6 points, 10.9 rebounds, 7.2 assists, and 1.3 steals across 732 career games with the only team that he has ever played for in the NBA, the Denver Nuggets. 

This season, he is averaging 28.9 points, 12.9 rebounds, and 10.6 assists across 57 appearances. He is on pace to average a triple-double for a full season for the first time, becoming the first player to do so since his now-teammate Russell Westbrook accomplished it for the fourth time in 2021.

Jokic added a bit of a buffer to his triple double average in Denver’s latest game, a 149-141 overtime win over the Phoenix Suns where he put up an otherworldly 31 points on 13-of-22 field goals, three three-pointers, 21 rebounds, 22 assists, and three steals. It was the first 30-20-20 game in NBA history–yes, even the all-time statistical marvel Wilt Chamberlain was not able to do this–but what’s telling about Jokic’s magnificence is that everyone, including Phoenix’s Kevin Durant, was surprised that this was the first time that he ever achieved this feat. He also set a  new record, this time surpassing Chamberlain, for the most assists by a center in a single game. 

The 6’11 Serbian has made games such as these a habit and the fact that he is still only 30 years old means that there should still be many more to come. Jokic is the ultimate fulcrum, a one-man offensive orchestrator who is the heart and soul of the Nuggets’ offense, which means that it should only be a matter of time before he records his next historical statline. 

The production that Jokic has put up this year should make him the odds on favorite to win his fourth career NBA Most Valuable Player and join Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James as the only two-time back-to-back winners of this award in league history. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the driving force behind the West-leading Oklahoma City Thunder, is Jokic’s primary rival for the award. His numbers—32.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 1.8 steals, and one block per game—are impressive in their own right, but they still fall short of Jokic’s staggering production.

Regardless of how the 2025 MVP race unfolds, Jokic’s status as an all-time great—as endorsed by Durant himself—is beyond question. Jokic’s unassuming demeanor may not fit the mold of past NBA icons like Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, yet his superior statistics and, most importantly, the wins that he generates, put him up there with the best of the best.

At this point, Jokic isn’t just rewriting the record books—he’s making the extraordinary feel ordinary–and that is the truest measure of his greatness.