Nikola Jokic, this is the double MVP inside: “We make stupid jokes”

Night of June 26, 2014. NBA draft night. With the television showing the now famous burrito commercial Taco Bell at the moment of being mentioned, his name barely appearing at the bottom of the small screen, the world barely learns that the Denver Nuggets they have selected in number 41 a boy from Serbia named Nikola Jokic. Neither did he, enjoying his sweet dreams at home in Serbia.

-You’ve been drafted in the NBA! How can you be sleeping now? -, asks, incredulous, his brother Nemanja, who calls you from NY, ‘in situ’ testimony of the event, while uncorking a bottle of champagne.

-Come on, dude. I’m sleeping,” Nikola answered, concise and somewhat harsh, with the humor of dogs of anyone who has their sleep interrupted. As Leo Sepkowitz tells in Bleacher Report, the center, without saying another word, hung up. And he so wide he stayed. Like when he was little he would knock on the door of his house throwing towards the basket that hung until the neighbor complained about the noise.

Jokic, who tonight begins his duel against LeBron in the Nuggets-Lakers, He is an extraordinary being but only on the track. Because he was so ordinary, so authentic, so natural, that even his personality, with his hilarious anecdotes and his honest sincerity, throws him off.

But to understand the naturalness with which he fulfills his extraordinary routine, by profession, innovator and inventor at every second of the game, that calm pose and even slacker with which he plays as intriguing as it is distressing for his rivals – who scramble to guess his intentions while he takes his time to telegraph everything before making the decision -, it is key to understand your personality.

“He likes to go unnoticed, he’s not very into social networks and he doesn’t talk much,” he highlights. Jordi Fernandez, now an assistant coach to Mike Brown at the Sacramento Kings but a great connoisseur of the Serbian as an assistant to Michael Malone in the Nuggets between 2016 and 2022. He likes the screens, but to give free rein to his hobbies as a child that he so gladly keeps alive.

-What have you done this weekend?- asked a journalist in the 2019 preseason, Curious to know what he had dedicated his free time to on a Saturday and a Sunday without training.

“I’ve been watching Pokémon for five hours,” Jokic replied, who still carries that spontaneous child inside, the one who once in a children’s tournament removed the mascot’s head to play with it, contrasting with the seriousness with which he treated himself. others took it as Darko Milicic according to what Milos Raznatovic told denverstiff.com.

“But I couldn’t tell you what my favorite pokémon is,” the center replied to MD with a laugh the day his Nuggets came to play in Toronto, before going to the shower after the game. He takes off his sweatshirt and reveals his naked torso. A correct but ordinary physique, little muscular definition and even a pinch of belly abdominal that who cares with the way that he subdues anyone on the court from his privileged and unintelligible intellect, a point guard contained in the body of a center.

If you had to identify him with a pokémon, before being Ditto -able to become any player with his versatility and ability to assume different roles-, was Snorlax. A lazy boy with a bun-faced face who reveled in the pleasure of bathing his lips with two liters of Coca-Cola for breakfast and tasting half a kilo of Borek, a typical Eastern European sweet, before getting in shape for the NBA.

“In High School I didn’t like physical activities, I couldn’t even do a push-up”

Nikola Jokic

“In High School, I was taller than most boys and girls. And the fattest, too. I loved some classes, like math and history. But I didn’t like physical activities. Could not do Not a flex.” Jokic told Bleacher Report, scrupulously fulfilling that of how important it is to know how to laugh at oneself.

“I’m not athletic,” the Serbian, a natural MVP, added to Bleacher Report to refute the natural stereotypes, to come to say that you can be gifted without complying with the classic and idolized canons of physical beauty, which can even be practiced other sports within the same sport. It is what he does with those passes that occur to him in that basketball that is so his in which invent at every moment.

As one more of volleyball than of basketball in the first round against the Timberwolves for which there is no defense. What kind of defender, or ‘scout’ -as much as there are more and more eyes analyzing-, can guess that?

But just because excellence comes standard doesn’t mean you don’t have to forge it day by day. “Every summer, rest two weeks and then go back to work ”, highlights his coach, Michael Malone, in response to MD, who does not come out of his amazement at Jokic’s discipline no matter how long he has known him for so many years. As on the track, he adapts to everything Nikola and has been no less in his daily routine. He does not like physical activity but, if you have to like it, it’s done.

“If you still have something new to offer us? I think so and I hope so. Every year he sets out to improve something. Not just on the track. He says “let me be in the best shape of my life”, “let me mature and grow in adversity, deal better with the refs”, “let me improve the triples”, Malone highlights.

“Nikola rests only two weeks in the summer and then goes back to work”

Michael MaloneDenver Nuggets coach

“His goal every year is not to have weaknesses and you don’t, it’s impossible to defend, there’s nobody like that in the league. always willing to do one more repetition in the gym, and that’s fantastic. I highlight his journey, from being a second-round draft pick I didn’t know of anyone to a double MVP. And that is because of his work ethic and his willingness to improve every year ”, underlines the Nuggets coach, dazzled by his best player.

“He is a quiet boy. He does his pre-match routines, his triple-double, and for home, ”he highlights, laughing, Christian Braun, Jokic’s teammate on the Nuggets.

But, again, that strict and maintained work routine is not understood without what he does in his personal life. “He has a great passion for horses, it is what makes him the happiest. Spending time with horses makes him stable”, says Jordi Fernández. In fact, if his draft pick caught him sleeping, his MVP announcement in his horse stable. He adores them and there are still some other teammates in the locker room impacted by that deep love for these animals.

“Everybody knows what he loves about horses, you can see his dedication and love for them. He evaluates them, he wants to know how they live, especially when traveling away from home,” he reveals. Jeff Green. In fact, in a post-game interview in these playoffs, Jokic revealed that his vacation plans are to go watch horse races in Italy.

“When we travel, he mostly plays video games and watches horse races. He is interested in other things beyond basketball,” he points out. Michael Porter Jr. “I think he likes to play FIFA,” adds Jeff Green.

“Before the games, he says he wants to play soccer and he starts playing,” adds Porter Jr, also recalling the soccer skills of a Jokic who has been seen in ways touching the ball with the orange. In fact, and in a striking fact that Zache Lowe gave, the Serb was leading in March foot violations with 45, well above the second player in the ranking, with 17.

“He is a very calm person. and his personality attracts a lot of people. He doesn’t talk much, he has a very marked work routine and that’s how he earns people’s trust. He will always be an example, he is not only an example because of what he says but also because of what he does ”, Jordi Fernández remarks about Nikola Jokic, nothing more scandalous beyond the track although some hesitation is allowed.

“We are from the same region. So, we make stupid jokes with each other, ”she reveals, with a laugh, Vlatko Cancar, ex player of Saint Paul Burgos the slovenian. “What kind of jokes? I wouldn’t know how to tell you one now, they come naturally”, adds Cancar, ‘watched’ by Jokic while the center dries himself up after getting out of the shower, lest he reveal some kind of forbidden secret.

When he has finished taking off, the ‘Joker’ will put on the impeccable suit that he wears when he is not wearing shorts and that ultimately defines the ‘businessman’ he is on the pitch, a businessman who is capable of guiding his team to success without breaking a sweat or breaking a sweat. In fact, he says so himself.

“Wearing a suit means business. I’m here to do my job. I don’t like how the players They dress up for parties.” Jokic released throwing a dart at the outlandish outfits that certain stars compete in when they arrive at the matches, as if the entrance hall of the tracks were a catwalk. As the last and definitive outfit of power in that business man pose, he would be missing the ring.

And the ‘Joker’ is also a kind of peace, always peaceful, a trait that perhaps gave him growing up among sirens for years. the Balkan War. And if he has a conflict with someone, he will make it up to him jokingly, as he did jokingly throwing the ball to the owner of the Suns, Matt Ishbia, after arguing with him for holding the ball in an action.

However, although he kills them silently, if he wants he can have great blows to demolish the morale of his rivals. Like the Rudy Gobert.

-No! I have it, I have it! – exclaimed the Frenchman, in a game with the Jazz, with his team sending him help to defend the Serb.

“Brother, I already have 47 (points),” Jokic replied with just four absolutely devastating words.

But, if things get bigger, then the ‘Jokic clan’ will jump in, his faithful and passionate brothers with whom he spent so many afternoons playing basketball – Srahinja and Nemanja-, and that they even created a Twitter account (@JokicBrothers) to defend Nikola after a confrontation with Markieff Morris Last season. “He is very familiar, his siblings and his parents always come, he gives a lot of importance to his family and that defines him as a person,” says Jordi Fernández, although without referring to that curious story in particular.

“He just lives his life,” she says. Michael Porter Jr about Jokic, his stoic and cold character on the track with which he crushes rivals is so terrifying, his natural personality is so impressive despite the abundance of successes. He has already said that, when he retires, he will go to the haven of peace in his hometown in Serbia, Sombor. That they let him enjoy his pokémon, his horses and his family in peace. Nikola Jokic, naturally, he chooses what and who he wants to be on the court, whether he is a scorer, an assistant or a rebounder. Because, in real life, keep being him.

disproving myths

“Jokic is undervalued defensively”

Although Michael Malone assures that Nikola Jokic has no weaknesses The Serbian’s defensive deficiencies have always been pointed out as a great defect. A defect that those who know him well and share or have shared a wardrobe with him consider a mantra. “He is undervalued defensively,” he warns Jordi Fernandez

“The numbers say it, he’s probably the best rebounder in the league (he finished third in the regular season with 11.8 sacks behind Anthony Davis and Domantas Sabonis). Then in the challenge to defend the pick and roll has improved a lot, He has very good hands, is capable of changing passes, touches a lot of balls, changes shots and understands schemes very well. This challenge has made him work even more”, highlights the Badalona coach.

“People point to him in the pick and roll just because he doesn’t jump, but he touches a lot of balls and modifies passes and shots. He is our anchor in defense, he is not our weakness ”, he emphasizes, for his part, Christian Braun. In offensive terms, Jordi Fernández acknowledges that training a player with Jokic’s IQ can be overwhelming. “He offers so many possibilities that sometimes you get overwhelmed just thinking about it,” admits the Catalan with a laugh.

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