Nikola Jokic’s debut in the NBA Finals on Thursday night was very much worth the wait. Jokic and the Denver Nuggets picked up a Game 1 win over the Miami Heat, and while he only shot the ball 12 times, he managed to have his fingerprints all over the game, as the two-time NBA MVP scored 27 points on 8-for-12 shooting with 14 assists, 10 rebounds, a steal, a block, and two turnovers in 40 minutes of work.
Despite only being 28, Jokic is in the midst of a Hall of Fame career, as he’s stuffed the stat sheet and been the biggest reason Denver is in the position it’s in right now. This has, invariably, led to conversations about Jokic’s place in basketball history, and on an episode of FS1’s First Things First this week, that conversation came up. It included one moment where longtime NBA reporter Chris Broussard came under some fire for saying that Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki “is overrated by a lot of people.”
Chris Broussard: “I think Dirk is overrated by a lot of people.”
He really just said that. pic.twitter.com/Un7z7wKNin
— Landon Thomas (@sixfivelando) June 1, 2023
Nowitzki is one of the more universally beloved former players, so it’s not surprising to learn that Broussard’s take ruffled some feathers. This included Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma, who wants Broussard to be taken off of TV for this one and believes saying this is “so bad for our sport.”
Can we take people off tv. Like this is so bad for our sport.. https://t.co/BIHjnWL4te
— kuz (@kylekuzma) June 2, 2023
Again, you’d be pretty hard-pressed to find too many people who dislike Nowitzki, as he was from a very recent generation of now-retired legends and earned a whole lot of fans in the basketball world for how he led the Dallas Mavericks to an NBA title against LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and the Heat. He’s an all-timer by basically any way you slice it, and while it’s not really necessary for anyone to call balls and strikes on this one, our hunch is that Broussard’s take is not exactly shared by everyone.
