Denver Nuggets MVP Nikola Jokic turns 30; his elite NBA career by the numbers

Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokić turned 30 on Wednesday.

“The Joker” has dazzled the NBA scene across his 10-year career with a distinct and multidimensional offensive skill set for a big man. He has the combination of being able to facilitate, hit absurdly challenging shots and play in the post at a high level. His career has also featured an NBA championship and countless accolades.

Here’s Jokic’s historic NBA career by the numbers:

1: Jokic is far and away first in Nuggets history with 155 career triple-doubles — which is third in NBA history as a whole. For perspective, Fat Lever is second with 43 triple-doubles, and Dikembe Mutombo is third with eight. Jokic is also first in franchise history with 7,866 total rebounds and 5,169 assists.

1.3: The big man has averaged under one steal per game just once (his second season); he’s averaging a combined 1.3 steals per game for his career.

3: Jokic has claimed three NBA MVPs, winning them in three of the past four full seasons. Furthermore, he’s already third in Nuggets history with 15,597 career points and third among NBA big men with 5,169 career assists, behind Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone.

3-10: Across the 49 games that he has appeared in this season, Jokic is averaging a triple-double: 29.8 points, 12.6 rebounds and 10.2 assists per game. Should all those marks stay in double digits, he would become just the third player in NBA history to average a triple-double in a single season, with his teammate, Russell Westbrook, and Oscar Robertson being the other two players to accomplish the feat.

7: Jokic’s 2025 NBA All-Star Game selection was the seventh such honor of his career — with each of those nods coming over the past seven consecutive seasons. In all likelihood, Jokic will also make it seven consecutive All-NBA honors when the season concludes. Meanwhile, this season is the seventh time that he has averaged double-digit rebounds per game.

10: Jokic has ranked in the top 10 in assists per game in each of the past five seasons — including being second with 10.2 assists per game this season — while being top-three in each of the past three seasons.

27.7: Compared to his regular-season career mark of 21.5 points per game, Jokic is averaging 27.7 points per game in the postseason, which is good for 10th in NBA history.

30: Jokic has been a force to be reckoned with as a scorer in the regular season, but he has been even more productive in the postseason. Most notably, in the team’s 2022-23 NBA Finals run, the big man averaged 30.0 points per game.

33: He’s one of just 33 players in NBA history to score 50 points in a postseason game, as Jokic dropped 53 points in Game 4 of Denver’s 2023 quarterfinal round matchup against the Phoenix Suns. Granted, it came in a losing effort.

40: Jokic was the 41st selection in the 2014 NBA Draft; he didn’t appear in the NBA until the 2015-16 season, playing for Mega Basket in the Adriatic Basketball Association during the 2014-15 NBA league year. In other words, 40 players were selected before Jokic.

45: Jokic is shooting a career-high and current franchise-high 45% from behind the arc.

80: The Denver centerpiece has never shot below 80% from the free-throw line in a single season.

126.1: Jokic currently leads the NBA with a 126.1 offensive rating and 21.2 player impact estimate (PIE).

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