{"id":152955,"date":"2025-07-31T14:17:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T18:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=152955"},"modified":"2025-07-31T14:17:01","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T18:17:01","slug":"former-nuggets-player-demarcus-cousins-insane-claim-nikola-jokic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/31\/former-nuggets-player-demarcus-cousins-insane-claim-nikola-jokic\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Nuggets Player Makes Insane Claim About Nikola Jokic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe it comes with the territory of finally being recognized as one of the NBA&#8217;s elite teams. Whatever the reason though, the stories about the Denver Nuggets have gotten increasingly dramatic over the years. Just think, it was just a few months ago that they booted general manager Calvin Booth longtime head coach Michael Malone right before the postseason, both <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/14\/bombshell-how-toxicity-became-king-on-the-nuggets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">contributing to a toxic workplace environment<\/a>. The latest tidbit about Nuggets took place long before Booth and Malone were dismissed.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, it may be an even more eye-popping nugget.<\/p>\n<h3>DeMarcus Cousins Makes Insane Claim About Former Nuggets Teammate Nikola Jokic<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cThe part that makes me love (Nikola) Jokic as much as I do is more so his personality,&#8221; former NBA star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/couside01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DeMarcus Cousins<\/a> tells the <em>Straight Game Podcast<\/em>. &#8220;It\u2019s the fact that if you ever get a chance to just hold a conversation with him and he tells you a little bit about himself, He\u2019ll let you know off rip he really don\u2019t give a ***** about this ****.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>Like this is his second or third favorite thing to do. Maybe third or fourth\u2026 That\u2019s the scary part about all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Demarcus Cousins says Nikola Jokic considered retirement instead of signing a Supermax deal with the Nuggets \ud83d\ude33\ud83d\ude33 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4UaKA5V85I\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/4UaKA5V85I<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Straight Game Podcast (@straightgamepod) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/straightgamepod\/status\/1950732325379052023?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 31, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I was with Denver, our lockers were next to each other\u2026 He was like, \u2018You know Cuz, I think I might retire after this contract.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_152961\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-152961\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-152961\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/USATSI_17778184_168404789_lowres-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/USATSI_17778184_168404789_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/USATSI_17778184_168404789_lowres-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/USATSI_17778184_168404789_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/USATSI_17778184_168404789_lowres-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/USATSI_17778184_168404789_lowres-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/USATSI_17778184_168404789_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/USATSI_17778184_168404789_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-152961\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Feb 26, 2022; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Nuggets center DeMarcus Cousins (4) reacts after a play in the fourth quarter against the Sacramento Kings at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As Cousins played with the Nuggets in 2021-22, the contract extension that he\u2019s likely referring to is the one that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jokicni01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikola Jokic<\/a> signed in July 2022.<\/p>\n<h3>Is It True?<\/h3>\n<p>A five-year, $264 million deal that was at the time <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/nikola-jokic-signs-extension-with-nuggets\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the richest in league history<\/a>, the concept of Jokic turning it down sounds ludicrous. Yet, Jokic\u2019s well-documented love of equestrianism does make it believable that playing basketball isn&#8217;t his favorite activity in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Just look at how the three-time NBA MVP reacted to his horse winning a race to his team winning a title and him winning NBA MVP Finals MVP in 2023 (<em>note: this is a jokoserious statement<\/em>).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jokic\u2019s horse winning a race vs. the Nuggets winning a title<\/p>\n<p>This man is hilarious \ud83d\ude2d <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6D9qrCCwjL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/6D9qrCCwjL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LegionHoops\/status\/1949559992207413531?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 27, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">An emotional Nikola Jokic reacts after watching his horse win \ud83e\udd72<\/p>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JUqd6z5X7T\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/JUqd6z5X7T<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheDunkCentral\/status\/1949565450821435559?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 27, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Nikola Jokic is presented with the Bill Russell Trophy as the 2022-23 <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NBAFinals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#NBAFinals<\/a> MVP \ud83d\udc4f <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/enfQxUJzZx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/enfQxUJzZx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBA (@NBA) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1668459818275819522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 13, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>However, that doesn&#8217;t mean Jokic was really looking to retire after the 2021-22 season. Furthermore, it&#8217;s unclear how Jokic would&#8217;ve had that discussion with Cousins in the locker room about a teammate&#8217;s extension. The only time Denver signed players to extensions was in the offseason. One would want to take Cousins&#8217;s claim at face value, but it&#8217;s not easy to.<\/p>\n<p>His story has to be corroborated.<\/p>\n<div class=\"modal-image-setImageMetadata\">\n<p class=\"ng-binding\">\u00a9 Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe it comes with the territory of finally being recognized as one of the NBA&#8217;s elite teams. Whatever the reason though, the stories about the Denver Nuggets have gotten increasingly dramatic over the years. Just think, it was just a few months ago that they booted general manager Calvin Booth longtime head coach Michael Malone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":152962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1608,2,62,3],"tags":[143,72],"class_list":["post-152955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nuggets","category-basketball","category-featured","category-nba","category-news","tag-demarcus-cousins","tag-nikola-jokic"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152955"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152963,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152955\/revisions\/152963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}