The “best of this era” debate usually circles the same two gravity wells: Stephen Curry’s revolution and Kevin Durant’s unguardable scoring blueprint. On the Hoop Genius Podcast,St3
Asked about Nikola Jokić’s standing among today’s giants, Hardaway drew a clear line between “greatest of all time” and “greatest right now.” He said he does not agree with labeling Jokić the GOAT, but he does see him as “the greatest in this era right now,” explicitly placing him above the era’s defining superstars.
In the same breath, Hardaway nodded at Curry and Durant’s brilliance, then explained why he still prefers Jokić: the Denver center “gets it done in multiple categories,” makes teammates better, and competes with a consistency that’s hard to poke holes in.
Hardaway’s argument is less about aesthetics than reliability. Curry and Durant can decide games with a barrage that feels inevitable, but Hardaway’s point is that Jokić influences the entire ecosystem of a possession: scoring, rebounding, playmaking, and decision-making that turns role players into finishers. It’s a value judgment rooted in orchestration, who bends the game most completely, not who looks most unstoppable doing one thing.
What makes the take resonate is that it matches how the league increasingly talks about dominance. In an era obsessed with spacing, Jokić is spacing. In a league chasing “advantage basketball,” he’s the advantage, because he creates the shot you want while also being the shot you want. Hardaway didn’t crown him as history’s standard-bearer. He crowned him as the present tense one. And by putting that over the legacy glow of Curry and Durant, he turned a familiar debate into a sharper question: in today’s NBA, what matters more; changing the game, or controlling it?
