"They Are Not Welcome Anymore" - Nikola Jokic Went Off On Nuggets Fans Who Booed The Team During Their Home Opener

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The Denver Nuggets began their season with what I would call a pretty dogshit performance in a loss on the road to the Thunder. There's certainly no shame in losing to OKC on their own floor, but with Nikola Jokic having one of his worst performances you'll ever see (13/7/5), Jamal Murray scoring 6 points, and the Nuggets as a whole shooting 38/27% for only 84 points, you could say there was a decent amount of early season pressure for them to immediately respond in their own home debut against the Pelicans on Friday night.

The thing is, it didn't exactly go that way. What I'm sure Nuggets fans thought would be a layup game actually turned into a fight. The Nuggets were down 14 points after giving up 38 in the first quarter. By the half, they were down 16 while giving up 73 points. The biggest lead in that first half for the Pelicans was 23, so rightfully fans booed. When you're playing like this, that tends to happen. When the first 6 quarters of your season are THAT BAD, I don't think it's crazy that fans may be a bit vocal about it. 

As things entered the 4th quarter, the Nuggets trailed 108-89. Not great! But because this is the NBA where no lead is safe no matter how big it is, things started to turn

In the end, the Nuggets came back from 23 and won a thriller in OT. They avoided disaster and found a way to claw back for a much needed win. That should be the end of it right? Sure things looked bad for about 95% of the game, but they locked in over the final 17 minutes and got the win. 

Nope!

When Nikola Jokic stepped up to the mic postgame, he made it very clear he felt a certain way about the fans in the arena who booed

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Yikes. There's really only one way to take these comments I'm afraid

Giphy Images.

It is very much possible for you to have faith in your team when it comes to pulling off a comeback while also acknowleding that before said comeback, the team is playing like complete dogshit. Fans cheer when things go well, and boo when teams play like ass. That's…..sports? If you don't like the booing, don't play like ass. That feels pretty obvious, no? I know people say "fans spend money they can do whatever they want" but that's not how I look at something like this. If you're not playing to your standard, fans have the right to share their opinion of that. Just because you ultimately made the 23 point comeback doesn't mean those boos weren't valid at the time. 

This stance from Jokic is interesting because we just had this exact situation in Philly, only it was 100000x worse. How did the Sixers react?

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That, is the correct response. Does it bring me pain to admit LeBron was on the money about something? Of course. But compare that answer to what Jokic gave and you tell me who handled it correctly. Jokic is the supposed BITW, MVP etc. He is held to an extremely high standard as he should be. The Nuggets, talk like they are contenders. With that comes a level of expectations. To suggest the Nuggets fans who were booing aren't welcomed back and to be serious about it…..yikes. That's both soft and kind of pathetic. You were playing like shit! Own it! That's not on the fans, that's on you!

Let's not forget, Nikola Jokic did not sign his extension this past summer. He correctly decided to wait until next summer so he can sign the biggest contract in NBA history. But, what if this season goes south? What if he keeps taking shots at the fanbase and they turn? I'm just saying, this is something to monitor. The team may stink, Jokic is beefing with fans, what usually comes next? I think we all know.