Has there ever been players as successful this early as Jokic and Doncic be so culturally insignificant?

[thenatural]

How do you explain Dirk Nowitski's popularity during the early to mid career run?

You think Dirk was that popular during that run? All I heard was that those Mavs teams were fun to watch (which is true), but they lost because they were soft. I honestly think Dirk has become more popular during his retirement years because, if you let some people say it, he matured during the last glory days of "bullyball".