Nuggets fans got some very bad news recently. Superstar center Nikola Jokic will miss at least the month of January after injuring his knee in a game against the Miami Heat on Dec. 29. In the team’s next game against Toronto, backup center Jonas Valanciunas went down with a calf injury that wil l sideline him for the entire month. Previously, starters Christian Braun, Aaron Gordon and Cam Johnson were lost to injury. Denver enters 2026 without four starters and its most valuable reserve. The team has no center for the foreseeable future. Expect DaRon Holmes and Zeke Nnaji to try to fill the void along with some clever rotation combinations from coach David Adelman. Some of the injured starters could return soon, but the team was built around Jokic. Without him, Denver will be fortunate to win even a handful of January’s 17 games. The Nuggets are 13-23 without Jokic over the past 5 years. Jokic is a singular talent that, as the adage goes, “lifts all boats.” Everyone on the floor is better with Jokic out there. Jokic is slow and can’t jump, but his court awareness is far beyond anyone else. He knows where everyone on the floor is and, more importantly, where they will be. He’s like a chess master thinking several moves ahead of his opponent. He reminds me of Martin Kristiseter. Who’s that? He was a soccer player for the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs in 2002-03. Krisiseter, from Andalsnes, Norway, was not the biggest guy. He wasn’t the fastest. Athletically, he was marginal at best. But his mental game was advanced, too advanced for the level of play. In his two seasons as a midfielder and defenseman, Kristiseter had modest stats (eight goals and four assists). You had to watch him play to appreciate what he did. Martin knew where everyone on the field was supposed to be. He saw the game in terms of spaces and opportunities. As a result, when he got the ball, he immediately put it into the proper place without having to stop and see the field. He knew before the ball arrived and simply nudged it this way or that into the spot that presented the best opportunity. I saw similar traits with other European and Latin American exchange students. The American kids would gather the ball and then read the field. During that 1-2 second delay, the advantage that Kristiseter would have seen would be gone. Likewise, since many of the American kids wouldn’t see the opportunities with Kristiseter’s eyes, most of his brilliant passes went unrewarded. The elite American kids could see the field like he did, but since UCCS and the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference competed at the NCAA Division II level, few of those elite Americans were on the field. They were playing at Penn State or Illinois or other Division I schools. How Kristiseter saw the soccer pitch is how Jokic sees the basketball court. They sees in terms of space and opportunity. Jokic has the good fortune to be surrounded by elite players who have learned to get where he expects them to be. One of the reasonsNuggets rookies have difficulty getting playing time is because they can’t yet see the court in Jokic’s terms. So the next month will be rough, Nuggets fans. But Jokic will return, Denver will make it to the playoffs and be a title contender. And as I watch Jokic’s magic, I’ll raise a toast to Martin Kristiseter. Doug Fitzgerald ...read more read less