Currently, at No. 3 on the all-time list for most triple-doubles, Nikola Jokic continues to rewrite history with his video-game-like statistics. A walking bucket, "The Joker," serves as an offensive cheat code for the Denver Nuggets,

In Malone’s defense, at the time the Nikoka Jokic-Russell Westbrook duo had a plus-11.4 net rating on the floor together, fifth among all two-man duos. Jokic-Christian Braun, at 11.3, ranked

Jokic has won three of the last four MVP awards and has been excellent again this season. He’s averaging a career-best 29.7 points per game, along with 12.8 rebounds and 10.2 assists. He could join Oscar Robertson and his teammate Westbrook as the only players in NBA history to average a triple double over the course of an entire season.

Nikola Jokic and Michael Malone's NBA fates will forever be intertwined. Malone was the coach who decided to give an awkward pass-first center from Serbia the keys to the Denver Nuggets franchise. Jokic never becomes the best NBA player in the world,

David Adelman’s father roamed the sidelines of Sacramento in the early 2000s. In an awkward situation this week, it was at least poetic that Adelman’s opportunity as the Nuggets’

The financial restrictions imposed by the new CBA limited the Nuggets' ability to re-sign their supporting cast. Players on the 2023 championship roster like Bruce Brown, Jeff Green and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope left in recent years.

With less than a week left in the regular season, Denver fired its head coach and GM, ending a yearslong cold war, and risking the NBA's most precious commodity: the prime of three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic.

Why did the Nuggets choose to fire both coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth? And more importantly, why now?

Before the axe fell on head coach Michael Malone in Denver, ownership made three-time MVP Nikola Jokic aware of the move ahead of meeting with the since-fired team brass on Tuesday afternoon.