The injury to Nikola Jokic was devastating for not only Denver Nuggets fans, but also fans of basketball in general. The three-time MVP is like an artist at the height of their craft when he is going right, and he has never missed significant time in his career.
Kevin Durant wanted to set the record straight on Jokic after the Houston Rockets’ 120-96 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday, January 1, telling reporters that the center hyperextending his knee against the Miami Heat was a freak accident more than anything. A former MVP who’s dealt with a number of injuries in his career, Durant wanted to get ahead of a potential “injury prone” label for the Nuggets superstar.
Jokic is expected to be out for a minimum of four weeks, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. He should be back in time for the final meeting of the regular season between Denver and Houston on Wednesday, March 11.
What Kevin Durant Said About Nikola Jokic After Injury
Durant was asked about Jokic’s injury on Thursday and he jumped to the defense of the seven-time All-Star, relating it to what he’s experienced in his own career.
“One thing I don’t want to see with Nikola is like, they started calling me ‘injury prone’ after that, but hopefully they don’t start with him because it’s one of those freak injuries that you can’t really control,” Durant said. “You can do all the work you can, but somebody falls into your knee, that’s just tough.”
Jokic suffered his injury when teammate Spencer Jones stepped on his ankle while defending Jaime Jaquez Jr., bending the center’s knee at an awkward angle. Thankfully for Jokic and the Nuggets, the result of the fluke accident was not catastrophic.
Durant missed the entire 2019-20 season after tearing his Achilles in the NBA Finals when he was with the Golden State Warriors. He then suffered an injury similar to Jokic’s in 2022, when he sprained his MCL in a game against the Pelicans.
Nikola Jokic’s Incredible Season Before Injury
Jokic was having the best season of his career and one of the best in NBA history before he went down on Monday. The center was averaging a career-high 29.6 points per game and a league-leading 12.2 rebounds and 11 assists (no player has ever led the league in those two categories in a season) while shooting 60.5% from the field and 43.5% from three.
The NBA’s 65-game-minimum requirement for eligibility for the MVP award and All-NBA honors could mean that Jokic will walk away with no hardware after this season. He had played in every game in 2025-26 before his injury, but if he is out for exactly four weeks, he’ll have missed 16 contests. That would mean Jokic can only sit once more and still be eligible for awards.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Kevin Durant Says Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic Is Not ‘Injury Prone’ appeared first on Heavy Sports.