MMoments after the Denver Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the 2023 Finals to capture their first NBA championship in franchise history, Nikola Jokic – the series’ MVP – was eager to catch a flight to Serbia. “I have to go home,” he said.
He stayed in the United States for a few days, participating in the championship parade, where he declared: “I want to continue in the parade, that’s the best”. He and his teammates went to Las Vegas that night, and when then-Nugget Bruce Brown woke up hungover and missed his flight out of Sin City, he blamed the Serbian superstar.
“I want everyone to know that it’s Nikola Jokic’s fault that I’m in such bad shape,” Brown he said on Instagram live. “I don’t know what he made me drink last night.”
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Awaiting Jokic in Sombor, his hometown in the northwest of the country, was Jokic’s summer, a few months of grand celebrations. The city erected a billboard—“Welcome Home, MVP”—in his honor, with a photo of two horses in the foreground. (He is a horse racing enthusiast.) Jokic, who is 6 feet tall, danced on a chair one night. He danced with a gold trophy on another night, after one of his horses won a race. Him again danced on a chair in August and appeared to be eight feet tall compared to the people around him.
If there was music and chairs in some Sombor cafe or nightclub, Jokic was probably towering over the crowd and descending.
He I rode my bike around the city and received a visit from teammate Aaron Gordon, who took him to the racetrack. He stopped at a convenience store in Bosnia to buy a beer on his way to a rafting trip on the Tara River, where onlookers serenaded him by singing “MVP” as he floated in the water. He calmed down front inversion from the raft to the river, which is known for having strong currents.
Per ESPN, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich took the clip and called Denver coach Michael Malone. “What the hell is your guy doing?” Popovich asked about Jokic, according to Malone. “I’ve been to that river, man. What is he, crazy?”
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Jokic sang without a shirt in July. He I sang without a shirtIn September. These were just the moments captured on camera.
Once the NBA season resumes, one smart TikToker mashed potato Clips of Jokic running, rafting and partying with NBA stars training. Jokic stated that he touched a basketball “a few times” last summer (although he lifted weights and followed a conditioning plan).
Overall, the regiment worked well: Jokic won his third MVP, in four seasons, this year.
The summer of 2024, however, will be different. Jokic, for the second time, is an Olympian, joining LeBron James, Joel Embiid, Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Wembanyama and others in a high-powered men’s basketball competition in France. Serbia and the United States open their Olympic tournament with a highly anticipated group stage clash on June 28 in Lille, north of Paris.
After making the 2016 NBA All-Rookie Team, Jokic destroyed the U.S. in a near upset in the group stage of the Rio Olympics, scoring 25 points and grabbing six rebounds in a 94-91 loss. US coach Mike Krzyzewski spoke glowingly about Jokic after the game. While the U.S. faced Serbia again in the gold medal game and won easily 96-66, in 2019 Jokic was an NBA All-Star.
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But it has been a confusing situation for Serbia, with and without Jokic, in recent years. He played for his country at the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup in China, but Serbia lost to Argentina in the quarterfinals. Coming off his first MVP season in 2021, Jokic did not join the Serbian squad for the Tokyo Games qualifiers, and Serbia, the current Olympic silver medalists, did not even make the tournament. He suited up for Serbia at EuroBasket 2022 and led the team in scoring, but Italy eliminated Serbia in that championship in the round of 16. And after a long run to the playoffs last season, and a summer of fun, few international hoops junkies were surprised when Jokic skipped last year’s World Cup in Japan. Serbia won silver without him.
Jokic now faces pressure to deliver at least one medal at the Paris Games. While the Serbian roster isn’t as packed with NBA talent as the U.S., or even Canada or France, the team’s historically fluid offensive attack, with Jokic launching deft passes down the middle, proved difficult to stop. Bogdan Bogdanovic, of the Atlanta Hawks, is a goal threat at any level: his absence, due to injury, in the 2022 European tournament hurt Serbia. Now he and Jokic are teaming up again for the Olympics. And they are more experienced and decorated players now than when they won silver eight years ago.
If Jokic can somehow lead Serbia to gold, he will settle any lingering arguments about his status as the best basketball player in the world.
And you might not see his shirt for a month.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
