Denver Nuggets fans wanted more national coverage of their team and Nikola Jokić, and Stephen A. Smith is granting that wish.
Smith picked the Oklahoma City Thunder to beat Denver in the Western Conference Semifinals before the series started. And Smith is even more confident in his prediction after watching the Nuggets push this series to a seventh game Thursday night in Denver. Not for anything he saw during the game or because the series is heading back to Oklahoma City. He’s confident because Jokić waved goodbye while walking off the court.
“I picked OKC to win this series,” Smith reminded everyone Friday morning on ESPN’s First Take. “I feel even more comfortable about it when I watched Jokić walk off the court last night and wave goodbye to Denver’s fans, as if he wouldn’t be back. Because that’s what I’m thinking, he ain’t gonna be back this year.”
The idea that waving goodbye signals some concession is borderline absurd. People wave all the time without it meaning a permanent goodbye. As Nuggets fans have noted, Jokić waves goodbye to the crowd in the direction of his wife and daughter after every home game and even some road games. And he’s not waving to his wife and daughter because he won’t be back.
For years, Nuggets fans have begged for more national attention from ESPN. They watched other teams get more national games, Jokić gets unfairly slighted as an MVP candidate and watched as ESPN kept the cameras on Denver for just four seconds after sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2023 Western Conference Final before pivoting to LeBron James.
The Nuggets have been overlooked plenty of times by ESPN, and Jokić hasn’t been the most captivating star despite etching his name alongside the all-time greats. But that changed Friday morning. Stephen A. Smith put Denver in the A-block on First Take, and Nuggets fans everywhere got to see the type of analysis they’ve been missing.