Nikola Jokic

The Denver Nuggets big man who dazzled the crowd and sometimes even his opponents with his magical passes just got $264 million richer after signing a five-year supermax contract extension with the team—the biggest in league history. The amount was not surprising since the reigning back-to-back NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) had just carried his team to the sixth seed in a tough 2021-2022 Western Conference without fellow star Jamal Murray. Besides, Jokic also led the franchise to four straight playoff appearances. Back in 2016 when Denver needed to regain their dominant stature in the league, they took a chance on the young Serbian talent they picked in the second round of the 2014 rookie draft. They gave Jokic the starting center position, let him create some magic, and never looked back. For the past two seasons where Jokic was named MVP, he averaged 26.7 points, 12.3 rebounds and 8.1 assists. Asked at the end of the 20212022 season about him possibly signing a supermax contract, he replied that if the offer was on the table, “Of course I’m going to accept it because I really like the organization. I really like the people who work here.”