Jason Burgos
In a rare moment of on-court anger, Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic lost his cool in their game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night, and the fan reactions to it are fantastic.
During his 11 years in the NBA, Jokic has evolved to be not only one of the greatest centers to ever play the game, but simply one of the best ballers the league has ever seen. There is no better proof of his elite status than being an eight-time All-Star, three-time NBA MVP, and carrying the Nuggets to their only championship in 2023.
Yet, what has made Jokic’s rise to legendary status so unique is that he has done it with a very calm and almost robotic approach. While he may complain to referees with some regularity, he rarely gets too high or too low with his emotions. However, that changed on Friday night versus the Thunder.
In the fourth quarter of a highly competitive game between two NBA Finals contenders, Thunder forward Lu Dort continued the questionable play he has become known for by delivering a hip check to the Nuggets center as he began to run down the court following an OKC score. The move actually knocked Jokic down, and it also built a rage in him that fans have never seen.
Nikola Jokic immediately got to his feet to confront Dort, and the fury sent the Thunder player into retreat. However, his teammate Jaylin Williams came to his defense. It led to what will surely be a new GIF on social media as the Denver star grabbed Williams and had a face that looked psychotic, like the Batman villain he is nicknamed after, the Joker.
Of course, social media being what it is, NBA fans were not going to let the wild moment go without opinions, and they had some hilarious thoughts on Jokic becoming the Joker we all want.
In the Instagram post from SportsCenter’s account, fans posted crazy face GIFs of the Joker from Batman: The Animated Series, Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street, Heath Ledger’s legendary performance in The Dark Knight, and a young Ozzy Osbourne.
In terms of comments, _seangregory suggested Jokic was saying to Williams, “I’ll feed you to my horses.” Warriorstalk commented, “Jokic looking like someone stole one of his horses.” While Lawrencejohnson added, “Bro turned into Hitman 47 real quick.”
In an ESPN Instagram post on the moment, kennychaojr said, “Jokic brothers on a red eye to okc 😂.” Koolken40 chimed in with “Jokic wanted to eat his liver with some Lima beans😂.” And nestt.g added, “Well deserved. Dort dirty!”
Suffice it to say, fans loved seeing Nikola Jokic go full Joker mode, especially against a player like Dort who has earned a lot of frustration from fans for his style of play this season.
