Play forever, Joker.

Never leave.

On the night Nikola Jokic received his third NBA Most Valuable Player award, I asked one of the greatest players we’ve ever witnessed the question that means the world to Nuggets fans.

How long are you going to play?

“I think the determination is going to be if I can perform on a high level or not. I think I’m not going to take (a) spot from a young guy and put the franchise down,” the 29-year-old Jokic said. “As long as I can play at a high level and help the team, I think I’m going to play until then.”

Twenty seasons of Joker ball sounds pretty dang good to the rest of us, if you don’t mind.

But 18 (like Hakeem Olajuwon) or 19 (like Tim Duncan) would do.

Kareem. Russell. Jordan. Wilt. LeBron. Bird. Moses Malone. Magic. In a game driven by stars more than the other games, those are the men with three-plus MVP awards to their name.

And Joker.

The others thrived in the bright lights of New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, L.A. Jokic is making history in Colorado and, boy, does he fit in here. True to form, Jokic shrugged when asked what it meant to have his family at Ball Arena: “I didn’t invite them. They just show up.”

Questions about his legacy might as well be another red scratch down his tree-trunk arms. He loathes them. But Joker’s legacy, in his mind at the moment, concerns his family.

“Hopefully (one day) I can talk a lot of trash to my nephews,” he said. “I’m going to be a cool grandpa.”

None of this is meant to dismiss the Nuggets’ 0-2 deficit to the Timberwolves in a Western Conference semifinal. The Nuggets just played the worst playoff game in the Jokic era, a 106-80 loss that showed a Nuggets team that knows it is not good enough to survive the T-Wolves.

Athletes always know, and the Nuggets know.

“Do these guys believe?” Michael Malone said prior to Game 3 in Minneapolis. “They say they do. But we’ll find out Friday night.”

But even a postseason meltdown can’t overshadow what Jokic has done or is going to do. The young man turns 30 next February.

Jokic is still evolving, as a player and as a humble representative of the city he calls “a second home.”

At first he shied away from the combative MVP conversation that consumes the NBA season.

“I can control it, but I cannot control it,” Jokic said.

But his actions off the court suggest a man who’s embraced the spotlight — to a degree. He agreed to appear in a hotels.com commercial with teammate Peyton Watson and, of course, a miniature horse. He finally has his own sneaker, the Big3 Future High from 361. He chose to sign with the brand, in part, because he viewed it as an up-and-coming company.

“Maybe I can help them, too, in some ways,” Jokic says.

This season he led the Nuggets in points, rebounds, assists, steals, minutes played and one-liners. He won the Michael Jordan Trophy — the new name for the MVP award — by a solid chunk. His 79 first-place votes cleared Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (15) and close friend Luka Doncic (four) of Dallas. Anthony Edwards finished seventh in voting.

Yes, the young fellas are coming for Joker’s throne. Fair warning: Jokic is a load to move.

“To be honest I liked last year when I didn’t get it and then we won a championship much better,” Jokic said.

There are myriad ways to explain and marvel at Joker ball, but you’ve read all about and witnessed them for nine seasons now. The underappreciated one is the greatest of abilities — reliability.

He’s averaged 75 (out of 82) games per season. Jokic skipped the load-management memo.

“There has to be times when he’s tired. And he’s still running the court every time,” Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth told me the other day. “And he’s still making tough shots that a lot of people wouldn’t make when they’re dead tired. His resilience and toughness are the things that stand out the most.”

While it’s an unusual gait alongside the best athletes in the world, Joker can run forever.

Here’s hoping he will play here forever — like Russell in Boston, Magic in Los Angeles, Duncan in San Antonio. Or Elway and Sakic here.

“This is going to be my second home. Hopefully I’m going to come here after I finish my career and still have fans here,” Jokic said.

Wash Park has been a Jokic family staple since he arrived as a pudgy 20-year-old from Sombor, Serbia, in the fall of 2015. Back then he would play pickup with his two older brothers, wrestling matches disguised as basketball games. Now it’s to stroll by the south lake with his pride and joy, daughter Ognjena, who turns 3 next September.

“I’m hanging in Washington Park and everybody is treating me like they’re really respectful. Nobody’s really… aggressively bugging me,” he said. “Does that make sense?”

Sure does. Now please, never leave.