Nikola Jokić

• 1. Introduction

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  Nikola Jokić was selected 41st overall in the 2014 NBA draft. His name was announced on a news ticker near the bottom of the ESPN telecast, famously overshadowed by a Taco Bell commercial airing above it at the same moment. No one watching that night could have guessed they were witnessing what many would later call the greatest draft steal in NBA history.

  Jokić grew up in Sombor, a city in northern Serbia, sharing a two-bedroom apartment with his parents, grandmother, and two older brothers. His father was an agricultural engineer. The brothers are friends with former NBA player Darko Miličić, and both of Jokić's siblings played basketball in Serbia before him. Long before any of that, though, a young Jokić was also competing as an amateur in harness racing. He still holds that passion today.

  By the time Jokić's professional career reached its full shape, he had done things no center in NBA history had done before. He won three MVP awards. He led the Denver Nuggets to their first-ever championship. He recorded a triple-double of 30 points, 20 rebounds, and 20 assists in a single game. And he became, in the 2024-25 season, only the third player in NBA history to average a triple-double across an entire season, joining Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook in that exclusive company.

  How did a kid from a two-bedroom apartment in northern Serbia, drafted 41st overall and introduced to America by a fast-food advertisement, become one of the greatest basketball players of all time? The answer lives in the details.

• 2. From Sombor to the Draft

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  Jokić attended Dositej Obradović Primary School in Sombor and developed a love of basketball playing with his brothers Strahinja and Nemanja, who were a decade older. Nemanja later played college basketball for Detroit Mercy and C.W. Post, and for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Steamers in the Premier Basketball League.

  Jokić played youth basketball for Vojvodina Srbijagas, drawing attention when he posted a total index rating greater than 50 in two consecutive games. In December 2012, he signed a contract with Mega Vizura, spending much of that first season with the junior squad. At 17, he appeared in five Serbian League games and averaged 1.8 points and 2.0 rebounds in just over 10 minutes per game.

  In February 2013, he officially signed a four-year contract with the team. The 2013-14 season brought more senior minutes. Over 25 Adriatic League games, he averaged 11.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game. The following season, he averaged 15.4 points and a league-leading 9.3 rebounds in the ABA League, earning MVP honors for multiple rounds and winning the league's regular season MVP award on the 26th of March 2015. He was also named the ABA League Top Prospect for that season.

  By the 9th of June 2015, Jokić had left Mega to begin his NBA career. The Denver Nuggets had already drafted him nearly a year earlier, and the contract he signed with them in July of that summer set in motion one of the most consequential player developments in NBA history.

• 3. The Nuggets Build Around the Joker

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  Fans chose December 15 as "Jokmas," a celebration of the moment in the 2016-17 season when Denver committed to building its offense around Jokić rather than Jusuf Nurkić or first-round pick Emmanuel Mudiay. That night, Jokić was reinserted into the starting lineup and the Nuggets scored 132 points against the Portland Trail Blazers, with Jokić passing out of the high post and rolling to the rim as the fulcrum of the attack.

  His sophomore season produced milestones at a pace that suggested something unusual was happening. On the 3rd of February 2017, he recorded his first career triple-double with 20 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assists in a 121-117 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. Exactly a week later, he scored a then career-high 40 points against the New York Knicks, going 17 of 23 from the field. By the end of the season, he had six triple-doubles, ranking fourth on the season behind Russell Westbrook (42), James Harden (22), and LeBron James (13).

  On the 9th of July 2018, Jokić signed a five-year, $148 million maximum contract extension with the Nuggets. That season, on February 15, he set the record for the fastest triple-double in NBA history, reaching the mark in 14 minutes and 33 seconds in a win over the Milwaukee Bucks, surpassing Jim Tucker's record from 1955.

  At age 23, Jokić became the third-youngest player in NBA history to reach 20 career triple-doubles. Only Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson achieved that mark younger, both at 22. On the 31st of January 2019, Jokić received his first All-Star selection, becoming the Nuggets' first All-Star since Carmelo Anthony in 2011.

• 4. Comebacks and Dominance in the Bubble

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  On the 8th of November 2019, Jokić made a game-winning jumper against the Philadelphia 76ers with 1.2 seconds remaining, rallying from a 21-point deficit. Two days later, he hit another game-winning jumper in overtime against Minnesota. On the 6th of January 2020, he scored a then career-high 47 points against the Atlanta Hawks.

  The 2019-20 NBA postseason, played in the Orlando bubble during a suspended season, brought Jokić's comeback capacity into full view. In the Western Conference Semifinals against the Los Angeles Clippers, the Nuggets trailed three games to one and appeared eliminated. Jokić recorded 34 points, 14 rebounds, and seven assists in a 111-98 Game 6 victory to push the series back. Two days later, he logged a triple-double with 16 points, 22 rebounds, and 13 assists in the Game 7 win, joining Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett as the only players in league history to post a 20-rebound triple-double in the postseason.

  The Nuggets became the first team in NBA history to come back from multiple 3-1 deficits in a single postseason. They fell to the Los Angeles Lakers in five games in the Western Conference Finals, but what Jokić had demonstrated about his capacity to perform under elimination pressure would define Denver's identity for years.

  On February 4 of that season, in a win over the Utah Jazz, Jokić had recorded 30 points, 21 rebounds, and 10 assists. It was the first 30-20-10 game by any NBA player in four years, and only the third such game since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1976.

• 5. Three MVPs and a Championship

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  On the 6th of February 2021, Jokić scored a then career-high 50 points with 12 assists and eight rebounds against the Sacramento Kings, becoming the first Nuggets player with at least 50 points and 10 assists and the first center to achieve that since Abdul-Jabbar in 1975. He won his first MVP award that season, becoming the first center to win since Shaquille O'Neal in 2000 and the first player in Nuggets history to earn the award. He also became the first Serbian player and the lowest-drafted player (41st overall) ever named MVP. His player efficiency rating that season reached 32.85, the highest single-season mark in NBA history.

  His second MVP followed in 2022, making him the 13th player to win in consecutive seasons. That year he averaged 27.1 points, 13.8 rebounds, and 7.9 assists on 58.3 percent shooting, leading a Nuggets team through most of the season without its second and third-best players.

  The 2022-23 season brought the championship Denver had never won. On the 1st of July 2022, Jokić had agreed to a five-year, $264 million supermax extension, the richest deal in NBA history at that time. In the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat, he averaged 30.2 points, 14 rebounds, and 7.2 assists. He became the first player in history to lead the entire postseason in total points (600), total rebounds (269), and total assists (186). He was unanimously voted Finals MVP and became the lowest draft pick to win that award as well. In Game 3, he became the first player in Finals history to record 30 points, 20 rebounds, and 10 assists in a single game.

  In 2024, his third MVP put him in the company of only nine players in NBA history to win the award at least three times. Draymond Green, after Denver's five-game playoff loss to Golden State in 2022, sought out Jokić to tell him directly: "I told him thank you for making me better. It's an honor and a pleasure to play someone so skilled."

• 6. A Season Unlike Any Other

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  On the 8th of December 2024, Jokić scored 56 points against the Washington Wizards, and the following night he posted 48 points, 14 rebounds, and eight assists against the Atlanta Hawks. He became only the third player in NBA history to record back-to-back games with at least 45 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists, joining Elgin Baylor in 1961 and Wilt Chamberlain in 1963.

  On the 7th of March 2025, Jokić had 31 points, 21 rebounds, and a career-high 22 assists in a 149-141 overtime win over the Phoenix Suns, becoming the first player in NBA history to record a triple-double of at least 30 points, 20 rebounds, and 20 assists. On April 1, he scored 61 points with 10 rebounds and 10 assists in a double-overtime loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Those 61 points broke his own career high and became the highest-scoring triple-double in NBA history.

  By April 6, Jokić had recorded his 32nd triple-double of the season, surpassing Wilt Chamberlain's single-season record for triple-doubles by a center (31). By April 11, he had his 34th, finishing the season as only the third player in NBA history to average a triple-double, after Robertson and Westbrook. He also finished as the first player in NBA history to rank in the top three in points, assists, rebounds, and steals per game in a single season.

  On January 14, Jokić had become the fastest player to reach 15,000 points, 7,500 rebounds, and 5,000 assists, doing so in 709 games. The previous record holder was Larry Bird, who needed 799 games. By March 28, he had crossed 16,000 points, 8,000 rebounds, and 5,000 assists faster than anyone before him, reaching those milestones in 739 games compared to Bird's 799.

• 7. Beyond Basketball

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  Harness racing has stayed with Jokić since childhood. He competed as an amateur in the sport growing up in Sombor and has maintained that interest into his professional career, a detail that sits somewhat at odds with the image of a three-time MVP dominating the most demanding league in the world.

  Jokić represents Serbia's national team and won a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics and a bronze at the 2024 Summer Olympics. He and Vasilije Micić became the first pair of players from the same country to be awarded both NBA MVP and EuroLeague MVP honors in the same season.

  In the 2020-21 season, Jokić and Micić's shared achievement coincided with Jokić passing Wilt Chamberlain for the most double-digit assist games by a center in NBA history. He surpassed Dikembe Mutombo for most double-doubles in Nuggets franchise history during that same season, and later passed Alex English to become the Nuggets' all-time assists leader during the 2022-23 season. He also became the first center in NBA history to lead a franchise in career assists.

  For the 2023 calendar year, Jokić was named winner of the Hickok Belt, presented annually by the National Sports Media Association to the top professional athlete in the United States. Kevin Durant, after observing what Jokić did to the Phoenix Suns in the 2023 playoffs, told reporters plainly: "Jokić is an all-time great. He's gonna go down as one of the all-time great centers to ever touch a basketball." In January 2024, Joel Embiid told Jokić after a game that his counterpart was "the best player in the league."