Nikola Jokic: MVP of a humble Nuggets team who’d rather go on their horses than celebrate a title | NBA

An advertisement for the fast food chain Taco Bell. Viewers saw this in June 2014, while Nikola Jokic was drafted only 41st overall during the second round. This is how the 20-year-old Serbian ended up with the Denver Nuggets.

“There weren’t even any TV pictures of her,” basketball commentator Dennis Chahat recalled. “Nobody expected him to become this kind of player.”

Belgian Lions 3×3 coach Steve Ebens: “Jokic is a late bloomer in the NBA. He made his career out of nothing. He used to be a fat kid, and now he’s an absolute star.”

(Continue reading below the video of the draft)

Jokic comes from Sombor, a town in Serbia. There is an adorable picture of him as a 5-year-old wearing a Denver Nuggets sweatshirt. Not that Jokic was already a fan of his future club.

Misko Raznatović, his manager, tells the story on Instagram. “At the time, Jokic wasn’t a Nuggets fan, he wasn’t even a fan of basketball. He just got that jersey from someone.”

“Back then in his little village in Serbia, they might have heard of the Chicago Bulls or the Los Angeles Lakers, but not of the Nuggets. So that kind of thing makes you believe in fate.”

Jokic wasn’t a great athlete as a kid. Jokic jokic junior’s overweight photo is also circulating on the Internet. He was already playing basketball at that time. He started playing with his older brothers and after a while he started training with KK Vijvodina Srbijagas.

There he was noticed by his current manager Raznatović. He signed his first professional contract at the age of 17 with Mega Vizura in his home country.

And so he eventually went to the Nuggets via the NBA Draft.

Here he is now, 9 years later, the undisputed leader of the team. He was also nicknamed “The Joker”. But what makes him the best player?

Xhaët: “He’s always played the right way from an early age. His ‘je m’enfoutism’ is huge. Individual stats don’t matter to him. He doesn’t do it for stats, it just comes naturally because of the way he plays. He’s one of the most special players out there.” Absolutely “.

Jokic is one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the NBA. “He’s made great strides in the past nine years.”

“He’s not the most agile or athletic player, and he doesn’t have the amazing play they’re used to from centers in the US, but he has tremendous insight. Jokic is not only a center, but he’s a playmaker as well.”

“He has a very good passing, he has insight, he really gets his teammates involved. He’s a bit of an extraordinary player who can do more than just play with his back to the ring.”

Jokic was again named Finals MVP after the finals. “He’s been very dominant for 3 seasons. In recent years he’s been the MVP of the Regular Season 2 times and he deserved it this year.”

“But with three in a row he would have been the best center in NBA history without a title on his record. So they gave it to someone else. But now he has that NBA title in his pocket, he’s put the crown to work.”

This crown is the historic nickname for the Denver Nuggets. for the first time.

This calls for a big party, but Jokic doesn’t jump in for it himself. And he asked in the press conference after the match, “What is the show date? Thursday?”

“Then I can’t, I have to go home.”

the reason? Jokic wants to go back to Serbia for the trotting competition. Because this is his second passion after basketball. “He’s obsessed with her,” says Dennis Chait. “Horses are his great passion and he spends his days off with them.”

The race in Sombor is scheduled for Sunday. “I don’t know how I’m going to get there in time, maybe I can ask if I can use the team plane,” Jokic laughed. “I asked for it now live on TV, so they have to give it to me.”

If jogging is driven as well as basketball, he might make a career change, it is said.

(continue reading below the tweet)

The stable of horses he has in Serbia and his love for horses seems to be the only “weird” side of superstar Jokic. The Serb does nothing scandalous to the rest, although he is the most famous athlete in his country after Novak Djokovic.

Jokic has no trace on social media, for example, which he considers a waste of time. His humility seems to know no bounds. According to his father, he had already booked his ticket home twice during the playoffs because he thought he wouldn’t make it that far.

Another fact about Jokic: during every match he wore his wedding ring on his garters. Jokić is married to Natalia, his childhood sweetheart.

“This tells us a lot about what a good person is,” says Dennis Xhat. “About his priorities and how he can position everything. That says a lot to me. It’s a very nice gesture and fits perfectly with the image I have of him.”