Grading The Week: John Elway, Joe Sakic put Denver on sports map. Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic is threatening to pass them both

Bless you, Nikola Jokic, for uniting and thrilling Denver sports fans. And dang you for dividing us.

It’s been a good week at Ball Arena, so the kids over at the Grading The Week cubicles want to start with the good news.

First, on three fronts, there’s no debate. After putting up the first ever 30-20-20 stat line in NBA history, the Joker keeps finding new ways to remind us that he’s the best player in any sport along the Front Range right now — with apologies to Nathan MacKinnon and Pat Surtain II. The Big Honey keeps finding new ways to remind us that he’s the best player to ever wear Nuggets blue. And the best basketball player hooping it up on the world stage, no matter what ESPN says.

Now to the contentious question, the one that could ruin a few Thanksgivings for years to come: Is Jokic the best individual player in Denver’s sports history?

Jokic’s Front Range legacy — A

Forgive us, John Elway, but you know what? The man’s making an awfully good case.

With each milestone, the Joker gets closer to touching the absolute rarest of air. And running with the greatest that a great sports town has ever seen up close.

Now please don’t get the whippersnappers in the GTW offices wrong. The Broncos’ No. 7 was 1 of 1. He retired with the most wins of any starting QB in NFL history. What Butkus and Jordan are to Chicago, what Magic and Koufax are to Los Angeles, Elway is to Denver. His is the largest face on the metro’s Mount Rushmore of sporting giants, the one who put this town on the map.

And Joe Sakic kept us there. Super Joe defined consistency over a 20-year career, topping the 100-point mark a half-dozen times while being named to play in the NHL All-Star game in another 13. His personal trophy case as a player includes two Lord Stanleys, a Conn Smythe, a Hart, a Lester B. Pearson Award, a Lady Byng and an All-Star game MVP. You can chisel Sakic’s mug right next to Elway’s on that Rushmore we mentioned.

But Jokic is now the clear No. 3 on that list — and at 30, gaining on those two greats by the season.

The Joker vs. Elway vs. Sakic argument, like all great sports scraps, is generational. Baby Boomers and Gen X on one side, Millennials and Gen Z on the other. Elway did it in the playoffs. Sakic did it longer. Both notched multiple titles as players, while Jokic has only one to his name so far. Whatever name you prefer, nobody’s really wrong.

Go on and accuse us of recency bias (we’ve been accused of worse), but fans over 45 need to keep this in mind when the kids rave about Jokic: Nobody in the league has done what he’s doing right now. Nobody. Not as a center, at any rate. Before Elway, there was a Unitas and a Namath. Before Sakic, there was a Beliveau and an Esposito. Elway and Super Joe set the bar. The Joker’s broken about 15 molds already.

Mikko Rantanen to Stars — D

Love ya, Moose, but this one felt personal. According to reports, former Avalanche winger Mikko Rantanen turned down less money in Carolina to pave the way for a trade-and-sign deal with the Dallas Stars at the NHL’s trade deadline.

Rantanen, 27, was shipped to Dallas on Friday, where he agreed to an 8-year deal with an annual cap hit of $12 million — or roughly what the Avs were allegedly offering him to stick around. Rantanen raved about the “fit in Dallas” after being traded for the second time in this winter, but why does it feel like the big Finn wanted to be back in the Central division to stick it to a bunch of old friends?

The Stars, by the way, next visit Ball Arena on March 16. We’ll bet you $12 million it won’t be boring.

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