Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic has blossomed into one of the NBA's brightest young stars. The Nuggets sure got him on a bargain, drafting him with the 41st pick of the 2014 draft.
However, his agent, Misko Raznatovic said recently admitted in an interview with Nedeljnik that, if not for an unfortunate event, Jokic was very close to signing a deal and starting out his basketball career in Barcelona.
“A deal with Barcelona was in place” said Raznatovic (as translated by John Askounis of EuroHoops). “An unfortunate event happened in his last game before signing the contract, which proved to be a blessing in disguise. He played before Barcelona representatives and the signing of the contract was postponed. Arturas Karnisovas then joined the Denver Nuggets and made it easier for him to move from Mega to the NBA.”
Certainly, as Askounis said, this is such a blessing in disguise, not only for Denver, but for the Serbian superstar as well. There's no telling whether Jokic could have eventually made the move to the United States had he signed his contract with Barcelona. But surely, the experience playing with the best of the best in the NBA certainly goes a long way in his development as a player.
This past season and in these 2019 playoffs, Jokic has proven that, not only can he hang with the big boys, he can also be a foundation piece of a championship team. The Nuggets system revolves around Jokic, who became First Team All-NBA this year.
Jokic led the Nuggets to the second seed in the West and went as deep as playing in Game 7 of the Western Conference semi-finals in their first playoffs since 2013.
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