Basketball and the Difference in its Perception in USA and Europe
Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic's approach to the game of Basketball is different than any of their American counterparts. In this article, I attempt to look for an explanation why.
The Denver Nuggets have just won the 2023 NBA Championship, led by Nikola Jokic, who averaged a frankly ridiculous stat line of 30-14-7 in the Finals. He also walked away with the NBA Finals MVP, the Western Conference Finals MVP, and narrowly missed out (rather unfairly in my opinion) on a third consecutive NBA MVP.
But as a franchise player for the Nuggets, he generates little to no “hype” from casual basketball viewers, something we have come to expect from others like LeBron James, Steph Curry or even Joel Embiid for that matter. Most recently, videos went viral of Jokic standing with a bottle of champagne, which he popped open, took a swig, and put back down on the table; looking somewhat out of place in the rest of his team’s overboard celebrations.
But is this just him? Or is it a phenomenon that outlines the stark differences between the perception of basketball in Europe and North America?
On watching the “Redeem Team” documentary on Netflix, I learnt to see basketball through a different lens. The cocksure American arrogance has always existed in the sport, but the deeper reason for that was always unknown to me. But the way that American Journalists spoke about it made it clear that, because they regarded themselves as the “inventor” of the sport, they should automatically be the best at it. The rest of the documentary further lays down that belief on how Americans view the sport. But aside from this, the popularity and hype around high school athletes and collegiate competitions on basketball like March Madness, I’ve come to the conclusion that Basketball in America is, for better or worse, a spectacle. The level of fame offered to these kids just increases the pressure on them, and adds onto the expectation for them to do something spectacular almost every game.
Europe, on the other hand, has always been a football dominant continent. The fame and rise of the NBA as a league led to an increase in the viewership and subsequently interest in the game of Basketball. Starting with perhaps Europe’s most famous export in Dirk Nowitzki, there has been a slow but steady rise in European (and Worldwide) basketball talent. In fact, the last five NBA MVP winners have all been non-Americans. When Milwaukee drafted Dirk (9th overall in the 1998 draft), little to nothing was known about the seven-foot German apart from his international highlights for Germany. He went on to win an NBA title in one of the league’s greatest underdog stories, defeating both- a Kobe Bryant led Lakers, and the Miami big three of Wade-James-Bosh on his way to the title.
Luka Doncic arrived at the Dallas Mavericks in 2018, after being acquired third overall by the Atalanta Hawks, and traded to the Mavericks for Trae Young, who went the other way to Atalanta. Luka was another European who had been making waves in the international basketball scene, being an outstanding performer for Real Madrid’s Basketball team. In a way, he (as with Dirk before him) fit perfectly into the NBA’s definition of a superstar, and hence Luka has the same amount of pressure placed on him as his American counterparts.
Nikola Jokic, on the other hand, was drafted as the 41st pick in the second round of the 2014 NBA Draft, infamously during a Taco Bell commercial. He came into the league, a virtual nobody, and has since then consistently left NBA fans and teams in confusion on how to stop him. Standing at 6 Feet and 11 Inches, as a Center he’s an astonishing anomaly, with soft touches, body feints and an eye for pass that rivals the best of Point Guards, and agility that one doesn’t expect from a man his size. His chemistry with Guard Jamal Murray is almost telepathic, and many have likened it to the connection that Kobe and Shaq shared during their time in Los Angeles. He has been at his best for the last three seasons, picking up two back-to-back MVP awards, and helping Denver finish first seed in the West this year with a record of 53-29. In the playoff semis, Denver dispatched the NBA favorites Phoenix Suns in 6 games, despite the Suns’ “Big Three” of Chris Paul, Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, and made light work of LeBron James’ Lakers by sweeping them 4-0. Entering the first Finals in franchise history, they were expected favorites against the Miami Heat, and on the back of a historic series from Nikola Jokic, defeated them 94-89 in game 5 to clinch their first ever NBA title.
In the post-match press interviews, Jokic was asked how he planned to celebrate this title. He simply replied “the job is done; we can go home now.” This statement, in my opinion, perfectly summarises the differences in the perception of the game. Europeans treat basketball as a game, something to play only on the court. Americans on the other hand, have been treating it as a spectacle for so long, that the media and casual fans cannot fathom that a championship winner can have anything else to look forward to at all. A similar incident occurred after game 4 of the finals, where a journalist asked Jokic how he felt about joining a select group of players in Finals history to record a stat line of 23-10-4 in a game, to which he responded by saying its not a big deal, going on to imply that he can do better. The press and analysts who treat the game of basketball as a numbers game, again, seemed at a loss for words. In a now deleted tweet, Kevin Durant said that he doesn’t think Jokic is the kind of guy that wants or even cares about the tag of “superstar”.
The tag of “superstar” itself is an extremely Americanized concept. When you grow up viewing the game as a spectacle, then your approach to the game changes, you try to be the “superstar” that the media adores and the fans love. But for European players who grow up playing the game within the fundamentals, without the outside noise, the entire “superstar” persona loses meaning. I think the best way to sum up the differences in the sport is that American players are required to prove people right, for all their fame and their money earned whereas European players are required to prove people wrong about what people think of them, and hence play with lesser pressure. As Bill Russell once said, “this game has always been, and will always be, about buckets.”