Two-time MVP and Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic has had a lot of time on his hands since dusting off the Lakers over a week ago. Normally with this much idle time, Jokic would be harness racing in his homeland of Serbia, where the Nuggets had to fly last year to drop off the big man's MVP trophy. But prepping for the Finals counts as an important enough obligation to keep Jokic stateside, which means he can’t go equine mode quite yet. His horses are probably wondering where he is.
When Game 1 tips off Thursday night, Jokic’s Nuggets will face off against the Miami Heat, who are led by another all-time NBA character: Jimmy (“Himmy”) Butler, last seen refusing to touch the Eastern Conference Finals trophy. Basketball-wise, Butler is about as cool as they come. And as I’ve learned from watching these playoffs, half-interested bar patrons who catch a glimpse of Butler on TV will often marvel at how good-looking he is. These are all major points in the cool guy standings. Naturally the shit-talking, immaculately braided hunk also has an appreciation—nay, obsession—with radio-friendly country music.
Which leaves us with a Finals matchup characterized not by the strength of its tunnel fits, or even the depth of its participants’ shit-talk. Instead, this year’s NBA Finals will be contested by two of the truest-blue characters—two of the most themselves hoopers—in league history. Beyond that, the matchup—the slightly whatever Nuggets and the insanely overachieving Heat—are themselves kind of oddballs, as championship contenders go. This Denver-Miami series will feature the most slept-on number one seed of all time against an eight-seed that had a negative point differential in the regular season and lost its first play-in game. While both Jokic and Butler have very established running mates at their side (Jamal Murray for Jokic and Bam Adebayo for Butler), the supporting casts for both teams are fittingly off the wall. The Nuggets have 36-year-old Jeff Green, known lovingly as Uncle Jeff, who’s on his 12th different team and is one of just two active players who suited up for the Seattle SuperSonics. The Heat’s gang of role players are either undrafted players—led by out-of-nowhere savior Caleb Martin and his J. Cole co-sign—or NBA graybeards like Kyle Lowry and Kevin Love, both chasing their second championship in a very unlikely place.
But each team has one true source of idiosyncrasy.
Let’s start in Denver. Jokic is not particularly good at running or jumping. That doesn’t stop him from being obscenely good at passing and putting up the most efficient triple doubles you’ve ever seen. Despite being on a Hall of Fame trajectory, Jokic does not have any interest at all in being famous. It’s very inspiring. He does, however, have a huge interest in League of Legends—and in the same way that other NBA players use things like Instagram to build their social circles, Jokic uses the power of video games. One of the only NBA friendships that Jokic has spoken about is with Nikola Vucevic…which the two Nikolas formed while playing Counter-Strike. He only slowed down his video game intake when he had a daughter, limiting him to more of an every-other-day schedule than a true daily grind. My man is well-versed on all things Ninja Turtles, but hopelessly unaware of all the cool slang the kids are using now. (Even his nickname—the Joker—is somewhat nerd coded. The more creative side of basketball’s internet ecosystem prefers the nickname Big Honey, though Jokic has denounced the moniker. Too flashy, maybe.) In perhaps his pièce de résistance the doughy center held court with reporters earlier this postseason while wearing a shirt that read I PAUSED MY GAME TO BE HERE. Obviously he’s not on social media, dismissing it as a waste of time.
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This is Wal-Mart normcore at its finest, a level of which not seen in the NBA since Tim Duncan and his jean shorts. But Duncan was a former first overall pick and unstoppable college player who won a ring in his second NBA season. Jokic is not that at all. He rose from the ashes of obscurity like a slow-moving, gelatin-limbed phoenix. Perhaps the most beloved part of Jokic’s lore came nine years ago. At the 2014 draft, the Nuggets selected Jokic with the 41st pick, during a portion of the broadcast where most people have long tuned out. There’s not as much pomp and circumstance for picks that late in the evening—and, fittingly, a Taco Bell quesarito commercial was rolling when Denver grabbed a then-19-year-old who would later blossom into the best player they’ve ever had.
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He’s remained perfectly unbothered most of the way, sort of embodying the “Ehh, if I have to” attitude that most people had when eating the quesarito. He’s also outlasted that product, which was discontinued by Taco Bell earlier this year. When the Nuggets clinched their spot in the Finals, Jokic was named MVP of the Western Conference Finals. He was asked what the honor meant to him, and very politely, responded, “Nothing.” It might be the iciest thing he’s ever done.
On the other side, there’s Jimmy Butler. In many ways, Butler is a more conventional NBA star than Jokic: he’s cool, and evidently loves basketball, and has the rip-your-heart-out attitude we’ve come to expect of Finals participants. He’s not, however, without his own quirks. In recent years these have included the following: the story about him removing the rearview mirror from his car because he doesn’t like living in the past. That’s a LinkedIn post personified. On Wednesday he said the Spice Girls were part of his pre-game routine. His friendship with Mark Wahlberg, with whom he’s been known to drown a bottle of vino, is dudes rock canon. And who could forget when Butler, in the NBA’s pandemic bubble, opened a coffee shop in his hotel room that memorably charged $20 for a cup of drip? In a Thrillist profile with the headline “How NBA Star Jimmy Butler Became a Huge Coffee Nerd,” Butler said during his stay in the bubble “all I could think about was how I could hustle these guys out of their cash.” Incredible.
His latest addition to the Book of Jimmy is his love of country music, which apparently originated in his desire to troll his teammates by listening to it. Whether it’s the Lukes (Combs or Bryan, and Butler appeared in a music video with the latter) or problematic fave Morgan Wallen, the Heat’s tour de force is listening at full volume. The fact that Butler has also been so forthcoming about his Nickelback standom is really a testament to how comfortable he is in his own skin and how little he cares about the hip, “correct” opinions of cool kid intelligentsia. Being a six-time NBA All-Star and one of the faces of the league while also being a huge Nickelback nerd really lays bare the inner workings of his mind. Jimmy Butler isn’t a nerd—he’s a cool guy, nerd rising. Someone who goes to Fashion Week, looks wonderfully natural strutting around Miami with a cigar and a Cuban hat, but is also intimately familiar with Chad Kroeger’s lyricism? That’s a rare bird. And what better time for that bird to spread its wings than the NBA Finals?
It’s clear that Butler is cooler than Jokic, but pretty much everyone is cooler than Jokic, and that’s the point. We should all hope to gather up interests in this world that are as eclectic as Butler’s. Or, if you’re more into doubling down on the hobbies you picked up as a teenager, it’s possible that you’ve already played against Jokic in League of Legends. Either way, we see you, we hear you, you are valid. Oddballs rejoice, these NBA Finals are for you.
