If you ask most any NBA fan, they’ll tell you the best player in the league right now is Nikola Jokic. The three-time MVP has a good chance to make it four this season, as he has somehow taken his otherworldly production over the last five years and gotten even better. Jokic is averaging 30.1 points, 13.2 rebounds, and 9.9 assists per game while shooting 56.3 percent from the field and an absurd 47.8 percent from three.
Despite being a multiple MVP winner and leading the Nuggets to a title two years ago, Jokic remains something of a mystery off the court. If you ask anyone what Jokic likes other than basketball, they will all say horses and probably not much more. That’s because Jokic has managed to keep his personal life pretty walled off from the rest of the world, but every once in awhile a teammate will give us a little glimpse into who Jokic is off the court. Recently, Jokic’s backup DeAndre Jordan revealed that the big fella’s favorite song (non-Serbian folk music division) is “Many Men” by 50 Cent, and that the MVP “knows every word.”
That naturally raised some eyebrows and on Tuesday night after the Nuggets thrashed the Sixers on TNT, Adam Lefkoe and Shaq did their best to get Jokic to rap the song’s lyrics, which Jokic refused (while laughing pretty hard about it).
He did say he liked the song and might consider a performance after he had some time to practice, but I think Jordan was maybe taking some liberties with the “knows every word” thing, as Jokic laughed and said “DJ is a bad teammate”. Jordan also pointed out to Jokic his song was playing in layup lines and the two laughed about it before the game, so I’m guessing the veteran big man was having some fun embellishing Jokic’s love for the 22-year-old hit 50 Cent. That said, we do know Jokic is a fan of rap music and might be withholding how much he knows, because we’ve seen him rapping along to “Not Like Us” earlier this season before a game.