THE ONLY OPINION that truly matters is Jokic’s, and Booth said he seeks it often. “[He] has earned the respect of check-ins and seeing, ‘What do you think about it?’” Booth said. “There’s a fine line — if there’s somebody that he’s played with for a long time, I wouldn’t put that responsibility on him. … But we try to involve him as much as we can.” He said, for example, Jokic was a big proponent of signing Russell Westbrook to be the team’s backup point guard. “I think more than anything, [Jokic] loves [Westbrook’s] passion for the game,” Booth said. But on bigger-picture issues, such as the best way to construct the team around him under the new collective bargaining rules, whether to entrust younger players with bigger roles or sacrifice flexibility and depth to retain veteran free agents, Jokic demurs. “I’m just here to play basketball,” he said. “I don’t understand contracts, this and that, years and CBA. … That’s not my job.” -via ESPN / November 1, 2024
