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Kada je na NBA draftu 2014. bio izabran kao 41. pik, nismo ga videli jer je u tom trenutku američka televizija pustila reklamu za takose We didn’t even get to see him on TV when he was the 41 st pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, because at that very moment the American broadcaster aired an advertisement for tacos
ons League and European Cup at the same time, or winning all Grand Slams in tennis, a feat that another unrivalled Serb can boast of having achieved: the world’s greatest tennis player of all time, Novak Đoković. Apart from being currently the best basketball player on the plan- et, Jokić is also a sporting phenom- enon because he’s a superstar who acts like an ordinary guy; like some- one who could sit beside you on a plane and chat about the weath- er or music. at’s why he’s loved by both fanatical fans of the sport and those who only watch the oc- casional game. Even famous news- paper e Guardian found him ir- resistible. Although they didn’t cover themselves in glory with ar- ticles about Đoković, to put it mild- ly, they have at least shown Jokić the respect he deserves. Under the headline “A pickup truck doing bal- let: Nikola Jokić is making the NBA finals his masterpiece”, e Guardi- an wrote after the commanding win over Miami that Nikola is “clomping through these finals with the vision and improvisational sizzle of Magic, Hakeem the Dream’s size-defying touch and footwork, and Jordan’s on-court omnipresence and invin- cibility, his sheer weight of num- bers and aura of statistical desti- ny. A claim for historical greatness is convincingly being assembled,”
writes e Guardian journalist, be- fore turning to what sets him apart from the rest. “Although he’s close to sev- en feet tall, his greatest skills are those more typically associated with players many inches his inferior: passing, dribbling, ball handling, court awareness. Instead of play- ing “above the rim” like someone of his immensity normally would, he operates below it; he plays above and around the heads of his oppo- nents, across their backs, through their legs, under arms raised hap- lessly in defense… it is his refus- al to do the things that basketball “bigs” are usually expected to – mus- cle up in the paint, wait for the ball to come to him, dunk – that form that claim’s omega, that make him so uniquely charming,” writes e Guardian. And that’s quite correct, be- cause there’s nothing related to Nikola that’s either expected or ordi- nary. It was way back in the summer of 2015 that he packed his bags and, together with his brothers Strahin- ja and Nemanja, and his girlfriend Natalija, departed the flatlands of Sombor bound for Denver, some 9,000 kilometres away. He head- ed to the state of Colorado, where snow falls as early as September and life isn’t lived as slowly as it is in his hometown. But Sombor is always
there somewhere in his mind. De- spite being at the peak of his pow- ers, at the age of 28, Nikola already knows what he’ll do when his pro- fessional career ends. His wife Na- talija and daughter Ognjena are his first priorities. His next priority is Sombor, while in third place is his love of horses. ere’s simply some- thing refreshing about a man who married his hometown girlfriend and thinks social media is a “waste of time”. “It was special to have my family with me. My wife, daughter, broth- ers… we all lived together at one mo- ment, so it was a circus, but they mean a lot in my life and without them I’m not going to be here 100 per cent…After my career is over, I’m going back there, to Sombor. It’s su- per slow—not too much going on— but you have everything. You have a canal, nature; you can get peace of mind outside the city. I just like to be someplace where I know how to drive a car without navigation. How I say, no place like home…” said Jokić, in his own unique style. So, if you’re passing nearby and the road happens to lead you to Sombor, take the chance to check it out, go for a walk and enjoy the beauty of this town in the basin of the former Pannonian Sea. After all, you might just encounter the best basketball player in the world!
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