Nikola Jokic He has accomplished something unthinkable not so long ago: leading Denver to win the NBA for the first time in its history. It took five games in the final (4-1) for the Nuggets, led by the Serb, to end the resistance of Miami Heat. With the humility that characterizes him, the Finals MVP He declared after the victory: “Now we can go home.” And that we are, nothing less, than before the leading scorer, leading assister, and leading rebounder of the NBA playoffs.
The great players of the last decade of the American league, such as Lebron James either Stephen Curry, seemed predestined to sporting success practically from birth. With an almost messianic determination, one only needed to see a couple of boats on the wood to know that, with a little luck, they would go far. However, Jokic (2.11 meters, 129 kilos), born ago 28 years in Sobor, Serbiaa small town near the border with Hungary and Croatiais the most humane of all the stars of the great competition, for being erratic and talented, representative conditions of our species.
The Slav, far from the Yugoslav war, had already attracted attention since he was a blackbird in love with horses (his second passion after the basket) and addicted to fizzy drinks. In fact, he consumed three liters of coke a day, which inevitably led to being overweight, the widest in his class but also the tallest. “In high school he couldn’t even do a push-up,” he recalled already in the nba. But surely it was those excesses that allowed the player to be the dominant and multidisciplinary center that he is today.
Jokic entered professional basketball in 2012 at the hands of Mega Vizura from the Serbian league. Despite his spectacular physical condition, the player, aware of his limitations, began to develop a basketball based on spatial vision, shooting and intelligence, an unalterable style that he has never abandoned to this day. It was so striking at that time that the very Barcelona he was close to signing him in 2014although finally the Catalans, with some doubts about his potential, let him escape to the NBA where he was chosen by the Denver Nuggets in the position 41 of the draft. His choice that night was not even seen because the television was in advertising (a burrito ad replaced him) and he was asleep. A year later he was already in the United States and, as legend has it, on the transoceanic plane Jokic took his last sip of sugar gas and he adopted a healthier day-to-day (he lost 20 kilos during the quarantine), although he always keeps a few portions of Serbian meat in his freezer in case the craving strikes. In the NBA, as the seasons went by and without making much noise, he became the benchmark for his current team and under his mantra, the Nuggets have become the brand new champions of the best basketball league in the world.
The big Slav is a beloved character for all the fans of the NBA. He stumbles as he walks and throws up his hands when a clear shot misses. But his statistics, since his arrival in the United States, have not stopped growing and currently it’s hard to find a center who shoots and passes better than him. In the regular season, the Serbian was on the verge of averaging a triple double per game, going up to 24.5 points, 11.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists per night. In addition, in his game qualities of the second national sport of Serbia are appreciated. As he collected in an article the New York Times, Ciaran Wolohana trainer of water polo from Staten Island, saw similarities between how Jokic passed the ball and how players in the water sports did it. The American investigated and discovered that in Sombor and throughout Serbia, water polo has a great tradition, something that has undoubtedly influenced the way the player feels about basketball.
Always with a smile and a bit of a jester, Jokic has become a cult player, both for his game and for his personality. One of the most remembered scenes of him occurred when, in the orlando bubble where the NBA resumed after the outbreak of the coronavirus, the Serb attended a press conference and accidentally ripped a microphone off the table. Jokic was puzzled, like a naughty boy to the one who knows that the scolding is coming. That’s Jokic the best player and new king of the nba.
