Nikola jokic can't jump over a puddle of water and yet he's the best player in the NBA The Joker is the best passing big man in basketball history he bends the reality of what's possible for a center and is the lowest drafted player to ever become the NBA MVP this is the story of how the pudgy kid from Serbia became an NBA champion and one of the most unusual superstars in NBA history Nicola was born in sombor Serbia to a poor family that housed six people in a cramped two-bedroom apartment but what they lacked in resources they made up for with a love for basketball Nicholas two older brothers were both talented players and their father loved basketball more than anything but Nicola wasn't like them he was a shy introverted ten-year-old short and chubby and PE was his least favorite class in school when his dad told him that he signed him up for his first basketball practice Nicola cried and didn't want to go he began playing the point guard position and his coaches quickly realized that this chubby kid was pretty talented despite being the slowest kid in every game jokic could really play and he soon fell in love with the game however when he was 14 years old jokic quick basketball it wasn't that he didn't enjoy the game but because he found something he cared for more than basketball horses actually I could but I could play basketball when I was like 13 14 and I was here for like six months and then my dad used to produce is my trainer to put me back in basketball so Nicola would come to the local Stables every day after school to clean and feed the noble creatures however his father made him return to basketball saying that he might be able to buy his own stable someday jokic played really well in the youth ranks and this caught the eye of the most influential basketball manager in Europe mishko raznavich mishko owned his own club called Mega which he used as a training ground to develop Talent only to sell them later raznavich found out about jokic through the local newspaper and saw that he was averaging 20 points and 20 rebounds per game but his first thought was that jokic was just more athletic than everybody at that level and that he was dominating because of his physical traits so when he found out that jokic was not physically dominant and was actually the least athletic player on the floor the manager got fired up and demanded that this kid gets signed immediately somehow nobody really paid attention on this guy this is the first and last player in the 27 years old history of the agency that we signed him without anybody seeing him without ever seeing him play raznavich signed jokic on the spot something he hasn't done before or after but this proved to be the best decision they both ever made when he moved to Mega jokic started playing for their junior team winning the MVP of the Serbian Youth League making the first team all-year League team for juniors and a silver medal at the under-19 world championship but despite being really good there was a problem Nicola was too heavy to play professional basketball jokic couldn't do a single push-up and he would get exhausted after the first quarter when I first started playing basketball back home in Serbia Belgrade I really couldn't do a push-up at the age of 17 he appeared in five games of the first Serbian league and averaged two points and two rebounds in 10 minutes per game Mega's coaches gave him a nutrition plan and they were killing him in practice to improve his conditioning but jokic barely shed any weight they knew something wasn't right and soon they discovered his Kryptonite Nicola was devouring a Serbian pasty called Burek like there was no tomorrow Burke is very high in calories and to make things worse jokic would wash it down with up to three liters of Coca-Cola every day but what yolkitz really needed was something healthy and something smart and that's why what he really needed is today's video sponsor ag-1 many of us working here at non-stop 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plus K2 and 5 travel packs free with your first purchase thanks to ag1 for sponsoring today's video and cheers throughout the year you the transition from Junior to senior basketball is hard for every teenager but luckily for Nicola it coincided with the return of his older brother Nemanja from America nemani yokic played NCAA basketball for Detroit Mercy and he could have been a professional if he didn't hang out with Darko milicich darco was drafted second overall by the Pistons in the 2003 draft but he was more famous for his partying and bad behavior than for what he did on the basketball court Nemanja experienced firsthand what can happen if a basketball player doesn't take basketball seriously we realizing that his younger brother possessed tremendous Talent he influenced him to stop eating junk food and chugging Coke and not to make the same mistakes as Darko and himself however a key role in the development of nikola's career was Mega's head coach Dahan milosevic milojevich realized very early that jokic possessed Court Vision like no other player he had ever seen so he gave Nicola complete freedom on the court in 2023 it became somewhat normal for seven Footers to bring the ball up to court like a point guard but in 2013 this was unheard of jokic had the luxury to handle the ball and not care about making mistakes something that American centers his age could only dream of jokic showed not only an exceptional talent in passing footwork and ball handling but also an approach to the game that is rarely seen in a 19 year old boyishly playful without any concern in the world almost nonchalantly dishing out no look passes like Magic Johnson it's about teammates you know when I open I score when I am fast you know play basketball it's just a play simple simple as they can you know in the 2013-14 season the coach's effort to improve his conditioning finally gave results jokic appeared in 38 games averaging 11 points six rebounds and three assists in 25 minutes on the court after that raznatovich put his name in the 2014 NBA Drft but despite jokic's early Brilliance NBA GMS were not overly excited about an unathletic and chubby 18 year old from Europe ultimately jokic fell all the way to the second round and 41st overall pick when he was finally selected by the Denver Nuggets and when his name was called the NBA famously played a Taco Bell commercial during the pick because who really cares about the 41st pick but on the other side of the Atlantic jokic didn't care either by the time his name was called it was about 5 a. m in Serbia and jokic was sound asleep while most people would be up all night trying to find out which NBA Club they'd end up playing for zero Ducks were given by jokic and unlike most drafted players jokic wasn't too eager to come to the NBA right away and decided to stay one more year in Serbia ultimately his decision proved to be the right one Despite mega finishing 10th in the Adriatic league in the 2015 season jokic became the league MVP averaging 16 points a league leading 9.
5 rebounds and three and a half assists per game after that it was time for jokic to take his talents to America but when he came over to play in the summer league jokic did not Excel averaging eight points and six rebounds in five games the reason was immediately apparent to Denver coaches no matter how much weight he lost at Mega he was still not in great shape so between the summer league and the start of the Season jokic lost 25 pounds in a few months but there still was one problem for him to Showcase his ability his name was Yusuf nurkic nurkic was a great friend to Nicola but on the court they were competitors depriving each other of much needed playing time coach Malone tried to play both of them on the floor at the same time but that was awful and there simply wasn't room for both of them after jokic averaged 10 points seven rebounds and two and a half assists as a rookie and made the all rookie first team he started his sophomore season even better and then Denver Executives decided to keep the 41st pick over the 16th pick and traded nurkic as crazy as it seemed at the time but they were not wrong in 2017 jokic improved his numbers to 17 points 10 rebounds and 5 assists per game while also finishing top four in the league in true shooting efficiency in 2018 he was even better finishing the year averaging 18 11 and 6 becoming the most versatile offensive Center in the NBA because he spent part of his basketball youth as a point guard jokic was not afraid to dribble the ball even against much faster players knowing that he had the big body and technique to protect the ball while running through the paint jokicz rarely turned the ball over despite making risky passes that would have resulted in turnovers with most other centers but on unlike Drymond Green who's a good passer for a big man jokic is also dangerous as a scorer even though he's probably the least vertical player in the NBA Nicholas still kills you with polished footwork a soft touch and a series of head faints that drive Defenders crazy to be honest I'm playing I always say are playing this way since I'm since I started playing basketball his lethal Arsenal on the low block and passing Master Class becomes even more dangerous when you factor in his fantastic face-up game where he becomes the most unpredictable player in the NBA if he's facing the basket at the top of the key there is always a danger that he'll sink a mid-range shot or a floater right in the opponent's face if the defender gets close to him jokic can get past either backing him down or facing up and if everything else fails he'll do his patented sambore shovel like all great players Nicola developed a trademark move and just like jokic himself it's extremely weird looking and unorthodox the sambore shuffle is a half step back half fade away that looks like a crooked and clumsy version of Dirk Nowitzki's legendary one-legged shot but despite the Aesthetics it's extremely effective I hit a couple of those right foot shoot on me like frustrating as hell you feel like you've done everything you could possibly do to make them take a bad shot and it hit nothing but the bottom of the net and another thing that flies under the radar with jokic is how strong he is when someone has muscles he looks like a strong man that can be very deceiving the strength is in the hips torso and legs Nicola is physically stronger than most centers Others May look stronger but they are not jokic is athletic coach however despite Nicholas Brilliance that led the Nuggets to a top five offensive team in the NBA their defense was in the bottom five and a lot of the blame was on jokic his lack of athleticism was even more pronounced by poor stamina which made him one of the worst defensive centers in the NBA and despite the Nuggets improving each year and winning 46 games in 2018 they missed the playoffs by one game losing the deciding game of the season against the Timberwolves but that would all change very soon that strength change condition change yeah I'll see a lot on the floor know I don't get tired that much I feel stronger in the 2019 season jokic continued the upward trajectory finishing the year with 20 points 11 rebounds and seven assists per game he made his first All-Star team and first team all-nba and the Nuggets finished second in the west making the playoffs after six seasons without an appearance Denver won their first round matchup with the Spurs but they would lose in Game 7 against the Blazers in the second round despite the Joker averaging a near triple-double in 2020 jokic made the all-nba second team but the nuggets regressed and nobody gave them much chance in the playoffs and in the NBA bubble things didn't start well as Denver was losing 3-1 against Utah in the first round of the playoffs but largely thanks to Jamal Murray who got the better of Donovan Mitchell in an offensive duel for the ages the Nuggets won the series in seven in the second round against the Clippers they were in the same hole again falling behind three to one in the series then Against All Odds they did it again made another miraculous comeback and won another game long distance from Murray only 11 different teams in NBA history came back after being down 3-1 and the Nuggets did it twice in the same playoffs however in the Conference Finals the Lakers were too strong and the Nuggets lost in five games when the next season started we noticed a significant change in the Joker's appearance usually after the season he'd relax at home eat tasty Serbian food and drink yellow and beer but this time he came back after the summer break noticeably Slimmer and didn't have to spend the first two months of the season on a diet just to get into basketball shape I just wanted to change something you know I wanted to see can I do it can I really trained my body and I lost a lot of a lot of fouls and I feel much better you know because of this we've seen his game rise from an All-Star to the Superstar level and his numbers skyrocketed jokic averaged 26 11 and 8 for the 2021 season shooting extremely efficiently from everywhere on the court but most people already knew that he was an offensive wizard where jokic made the biggest was his defense he still wasn't a vertical rim protector like Rudy gobert far from it but what he couldn't give the nuggets with athleticism he made up for in Hustle his smart positioning and long arms made him a plus Defender when protecting the paint and the Nuggets were four points better defensively with jokic on the court because of his Newfound conditioning jokic was second among all centers and steals he was fourth in the entire NBA in deflections and 12th in contested two-point shots jokic led the NBA in all the advanced offensive ratings and because of his improved defense he deservedly won an MVP award but because Jamal Murray tore his ACL Denver got swept in the second round of the playoffs in 2022 the Nuggets didn't have Murray for the season and they also lost Michael Porter Jr after just nine games without two of their three best players jokic almost single-handedly led the team to 48 wins and a playoff berth with stats that were even better than the previous season Nicola became the first player in NBA history with two thousand points one thousand rebounds and 500 assists in one season which secured him a second consecutive MVP award his back door passes no look dimes and touch and go volleyball assists became an art form and when you're talking about the beauty of the assist there is nobody in the NBA who does it better than big honey and while many people believed he couldn't improve after that jokic surprised the world again for much of the 2023 season he averaged a triple double eventually finishing just 12 assists shy of a triple double season average his conditioning is something that nobody can question anymore as jokic is regularly outrunning most centers down the floor usually handling the ball and setting up teammates in transition but what went under the radar is how efficient jokic was and that he had the most efficient shooting season in NBA history there have been only five players in NBA history with a true shooting percentage over 70 percent for the season and while yoga is this 2023 season is fifth on that list everybody who is above him on that list is a center whose offensive diet largely consists of dunks like Rudy gobert Mitchell Robinson and Tyson Chandler in 2023 jokic only had 23 dunks and his scoring output was mainly floaters jump Hooks and mid-range shots where yokic is by far the best in the league is in shots between 3 and 10 feet to the basket which he's hitting with an insane 65 efficiency while Joel embiid won the MVP over yokic many would argue that it's because of voter fatigue as Nicola once again led the league in almost all advanced metrics an unprecedented hype around the 2023 MVP race saw many people lobbying for MB to get the award mainly Kendrick Perkins who accused jokic of stat padding along with some very stupid racist remarks which is better not to get into here what does 100 triple doubles mean to you I mean when you start batting enthusi you know so but what's maybe even more impressive than yokich's triple doubles is that he doesn't care about the individual Awards he's all about the team's success when the reporters asked him about becoming the first player since Larry Bird who could win three consecutive MVP awards jokic nonchalantly responded Larry can keep the record I don't care I bet bird doesn't even know where his MVP trophies are while embiid publicly demanded to win the award jokic kept his mouth shut and continued praising his teammates you'll never hear Nicola talk about his accomplishments and since Tim Duncan there hasn't been a more humble and low-key Superstar but when the playoffs started jokic showed everyone who the real MVP was while the Sixers lost in the second round for the fifth time in the last six years with embiida's numbers dropping across the board The Joker dominated and not only did he dominate Nicola had one of the best playoff runs in NBA history in the second round against the betting favorite Phoenix Suns jokic averaged a triple double for the series and Denver advanced in six games in the Conference Finals the Nuggets swept LeBron James and the Lakers with jokic averaging another triple double and then in the finals against Miami The Joker averaged 30 14 and 7 leading the Nuggets to their first NBA title and winning the Bill Russell Finals MVP trophy becoming the lowest drafted player ever to win the award with 30 points 13. 5 rebounds and 9.
