Editor’s note: This story was originally published in May 2023 and has been updated.
Nine years ago, one of the greatest players to ever step foot on a basketball court was officially drafted into the NBA. And like hundreds of players before him, that moment was captured on national television.
It was June 26, 2014, and future MVP Nikola Jokic was selected by the Denver Nuggets with the 41st pick of the draft – one of the biggest steals in NBA draft history.
So, how was that momentous occasion memorialized in the annals of ESPN telecasts? With an unappetizing Taco Bell commercial for the fast-food chain’s most-recent food Frankenstein, a quesadilla-burrito called, get this, the quesarito.
Not quite as creative as Jokic’s game turned out to be.
Remember when Nikola Jokic was drafted during a Taco Bell commercial 😅pic.twitter.com/tJ6uDaCauE
— DraftKings (@DraftKings) May 23, 2023
The quesarito did turn out to be a big success, though. It stuck around all this time until finally being removed from Taco Bell’s menu last month. And so was Jokic, who just added a Western Conference finals MVP trophy to a mantle that already includes two league MVPs
Forever connected, maybe the end of the quesarito was a sign that we needed to pay the Nuggets big man more attention. While we were all expecting long playoff runs from teams like the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks, Denver was the best team all along.
After sweeping the Lakers, Jokic and the Nuggets are now just four wins from being crowned champions.