NBA legend praises viral Nikola Jokic highlight assist

One of the best passers in NBA history is making a big claim about the pass Nikola Jokic threw Sunday night.

Hall of Fame point guard and two-time MVP Steve Nash said he isn’t sure anyone in the history of the game could have pulled it off the way Jokic did.

NO-LOOK. CROSSCOURT. BEHIND-THE-BACK DIME.

ARE YOU SERIOUS, JOKER 🤯 pic.twitter.com/A5upVabWYw

— NBA (@NBA) October 4, 2026

Midway through the first quarter of Denver’s preseason opener against the Utah Jazz in Boulder, Lauri Markkanen had Jokic pinned along the baseline. Jokic whipped a no-look, behind-the-back pass the length of the baseline to Cameron Johnson in the opposite corner. Johnson knocked down the 3-pointer. Jokic was already jogging back on defense.

Still thinking about Joker’s INSANE DIME from last night…

No-look.
Behind-the-back.
Corner to corner.

What a pass by Year 12 Nikola Jokić in Denver’s preseason opener 😮‍💨🤯pic.twitter.com/kD8UR5cp50

— NBA (@NBA) October 5, 2026

Nash broke the play down on The Zach Lowe Show.

“A lot of great passers could see like, hmm … his defender’s a little high. I could get it there, but by the time I turn and throw it, he’s not high anymore, and he’s stealing that pass,” Nash said. “So it can only be one way, and that’s disguising it and quickly throwing it behind the back, where no one’s eyes are expecting it.”

Nash said the defender probably didn’t see the ball until it reached the middle of the paint, and by then it was too late.

“Tricking the defender by going behind the back takes it to another level, and then getting it there on the money. I mean, it’s just ridiculous,” Nash said. “I don’t know that there’s anyone else in the history of the game that could make that pass in disguise the way he did, as quick as he did, and on a rope and on the hands as he did.”

Lowe said he might need 500 tries to complete the pass in an empty gym with no defender. Nash said he could probably get it there in a few tries. Lowe joked about him being a two-time MVP. Nash said making the throw wasn’t really the point. Disguising it was.

“For me to get it there, the inertia I would have had to create, the torque to get it there, would have given the game away,” Nash said. “But he’s so big, strong that he just flung it with the arm, and that disguised it long enough that no one was the wiser.”

Nash said that is what makes the three-time MVP, Jokic, special: “the height, strength, the vision, all combined together.”

“He’s one of one who can make that pass,” Jokic’s coach, David Adelman, said after the game.

Rookie Trevon Brazile was still stunned afterward. “Did you see that pass? The behind the back?” he said. “That’s all I got to say … crazy.”

Former NBA player Eddie Johnson posted on Twitter that “only three people” in history could have made the pass flat-footed. Then he named five: Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, LeBron James, Bill Walton and “possibly Jason Kidd.” Bill Simmons fired back, “Eddie you’re not allowed on the Jokic bandwagon go back to bed.” Johnson has been a notorious Jokic hater over the years.

It’s hard to say if this is Jokic’s best pass, he’s had some great ones in games that actually count — nonetheless, it’s a good reminder of the hoops the star is capable of and we’re about to spend the next six months watching.

Denver lost their preseason debut. Jokic played just 15 minutes and finished with three points, three rebounds and seven assists. But Jokic led the Nuggets to a win on Tuesday, also against the Jazz but this time in Utah. Big Honey had a line of six, five and four.

The Nuggets open the regular season Oct. 22 against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

NEW JOKIĆ ANGLE JUST DROPPED 😳

We're still not over this behind-the-back dime from Joker 🔥

(via: jakewrob/IG, ajj_morris/IG) https://t.co/qUhomhvtgB pic.twitter.com/mKRxqxDCXK

— NBA (@NBA) October 6, 2026

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