Despite bursting onto the NBA scene in his first two years in the league, Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic is still a bit of a mystery.
Misko Raznatovic, a European sports agent who was one of the men who “discovered” Jokic at a young age, provided some interesting stories about a young Jokic in an interview with Blic Sports’ Igor Velimirovic, which was then translated from Serbian to English by Nuggets blog Denver Stiffs.
One of the more standout pieces of information about Jokic from the interview was that Raznatovic apparently had an interesting method for getting the big man ready and focused for a big game, one which involved his daughter and cookies.
As you may know, Mega always organizes New Year‘s games in which players, sponsors, coaches, and management participate. Of course, Nikola was always very committed there and he was so aggressive on defense – which was of course never one of his characteristics – that I elbowed him heavily as he was trying to take the ball from me. I always used to say to him that the New Year‘s game and playing against me and my daughter Masa got him fired up more than the cup final game.
A popular anecdote is that before an important game would start I told him to close his eyes and imagine that on the other side of the court is me and my daughter Masa and that if he wins against us he‘d get choco cookies.
It’d be interesting to know whether Jokic still uses this unorthodox motivational technique now that he’s in the NBA. But whatever Nikola Jokic does to get himself ready to play, it’s certainly working, as he has quickly established himself as the Nuggets' franchise player and one of the most promising young big men in the league.
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