DENVER, COLORADO – MAY 06: Nikola Jokic #15 of the Denver Nuggets shoots during the first quarter in … [+]

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If you walked into a gym and saw Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets working out, you would say, “He’s gotta be a basketball player.” Jokic is nearly 7-feet tall, so you’d be right. What you would most likely not say is, “What a physique … kind of reminds me of a young LeBron James or Wilt Chamberlain!”

No, Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for the third time in four years last week, and the honor speaks volumes less about his otherworldly physical attributes than the role of hard work, focus and continuous improvement.

As a three-time MVP, he joins a pantheon of NBA all-time greats that includes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (6 total), Michael Jordan (5), Bill Russell (4), LeBron James (4), Wilt Chamberlain, Moses Malone, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson (3). There’s a statistical case we could focus on to understand Jokic’s achievement, but that gets us too far into the weeds. We’ll cite just one number and point out that Jokic is the second player, after the legendary Oscar Robertson, to record 2,000 points, 900 rebounds and 600 assists in a season.

Unlike all of the above names, however, the big Serbian didn’t enter the league as a highly touted draft pick out of college or a high school phenomenon gifted with an Olympus-worthy body and skill set. Jokic had to wait until the second round of the 2014 draft to hear his name called by the Nuggets, who drafted him forty-first overall. In his first season, he averaged single digits in points and rebounds; in his second season, he improved in both of these categories. But nobody would call him an elite NBA player. Not yet

DENVER, COLORADO – APRIL 20: Nikola Jokic #15 of the Denver Nuggets drives against Anthony Davis #3 … [+]

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But over the ensuing years, his productivity continued to increase steadily, and this year, counting his average of 9 assists and 26.4 points per game, Jokic has contributed to scoring nearly 45 points each time the Nuggets take the floor. The former second-round pick gradually became the centerpiece of a great team that won the 2023 NBA Finals, with Jokic getting the final seal of approval as an elite player: the Finals MVP.

This is an encouraging story precisely because Jokic’s journey is turning out the way it’s supposed to turn out: he’s every bit a self-made man. Sure, he had the good fortune to grow to be 6-feet 11-inches tall, but the ranks of pro basketball are strewn with the unrealized promise of super-sized players who never advanced beyond being, well, super-sized. Size might turn a few heads, but it will not turn you into an MVP.

What will contribute to your rise to elite status is understanding how successful teams motivate individual members of the team to raise their bar year in and year out, which also raises the team’s collective bar each year. This season’s Nuggets team, for example, has a slightly better record than last year’s Championship team.

While Jokic doesn’t seem actually dismissive of his achievement, he says everything with such blunt matter-of-factness and quirkiness that he certain lives his nickname: “Joker.” For example, when in 2023 he became the first player in NBA history to collect 30 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists in a Finals game, the postgame interviewer asked him what the accomplishment “meant” to him.

“To be honest, not much,” answered Jokic.

“I figured you were going to say that,” quipped the reporter.

This year, he put his third MVP award into a more sober, if still understated, context.

“It’s got to start with the teammates; without them, I cannot do nothing,” Jokic said. “Coaches, players, organization, medical staff, strength coaches, development coaches. It is all one big circle. But I cannot be whatever I am without them.”

Despite his deflection of credit, another elite player, LeBron James, offered a reverse perspective of Jokic’s impact on what many consider to be the most talented starting five teammates in the league.

“The most important thing is he changes the way his teammates think about their own play,” James said. “When you’re able to inspire your teammates to play at a level that sometimes they don’t even feel like they can play at, that’s the true testament of a great one.”

The great ones show the way for their teammates and lead by doing. Jokic is famous for his many quotes, some funny, others inspirational. The one that seems most apt for concluding this discussion has to do with an often-overlooked muscle that needs lots of attention, in sport or in business.

“The only muscle you need,” confirmed Jokic, “is the one in your brain.”