The Dual Realities of Nikola Jokic: NBA Glory and Serbian Scrutiny (2024)

Sincejoining the NBA in 2015,Nikola Jokic has amassed a string of individual accolades and trophies that even many past players pale in comparison.

The Serbian big man, who arrived in the NBA not necessarily with a lot of hype around him, won an NBA title in 2023 and was also the Finals MVP that same year.

To date, he has also already won three season MVP titles, been selected to the All-Star Game six times, and finished in the All-NBA first team on four different occasions.

This list of accolades would already make quite an impression if it were a player at the end of his career, but Jokic has not yet turned 30 and is in the prime of his career, with a chance to further enrich this list of accomplishments.

At the NBA level now, Jokic is universally recognized as one of the best players in the league and perhaps in the game's recent history.

On paper, this kind of status should translate into identical consideration in Jokic's home country of Serbia as well, but the reality is a bit more complex.

Despite his incredible career so far, Jokic, in the imagination of his country, is still not held in the same regard as other greats in Serbian basketball history. This aspect is not necessarily related to the fact that the Denver Nuggets center, so far, has "only" won an Olympic silver medal with the national team.

Since his journey with the senior national team began, Jokic has missed three major tournaments: EuroBasket 2017, the Olympic Qualifying tournament in 2021, and the FIBA World Cup in 2023.

These absences have weighed on his reputation at home. When it comes to national teams, the patriotic pride factor is even more present than in club teams.

While true for virtually all national teams, this concept is even more pronounced in a country like Serbia.

"National pride is a very strong feeling in Serbia, and it also applies distinctly to basketball, which has always had important political connotations in our country," professor and basketball fan Milan Petkovic explained to BasketNews.

"Many fans are extremely attached to the national team and want to see an unconditional commitment from the players," Petkovic continued. "So when they see a player, especially a player of Jokic's caliber, miss major tournaments without a specific reason or particular injuries, they are not happy about it, and it is easy for the thought to form in them that the player is not sufficiently attached to his country and the national team."

This sentiment is not only present among the fans but is also quite alive in the ranks of the Serbian Federation.

In 2023, the Serbian federation, involving some 40 local journalists, presented the Best Serbian Player of the Year award to Bogdan Bogdanovic, who collected 27 of the 40 available votes.

Although Jokic won his first NBA title and the finals MVP title that season, the Serbian center did not receive more than 10 votes.

The main reason for Jokic's defeat? Simple, his non-participation in the 2023 FIBA World Cup, at which Bogdan Bogdanovic, the leader of coach Pesic's team during that tournament, was present instead.

"Most of the media who voted for that award were clearly sending a message to Jokic," a Serbian federation source told BasketNews. "It doesn't matter how great you're in the NBA; if you don't play with the national team, you're not as good as you think."

Of course, there is also the matter of Serbia's achievements with Jokic, when the Nuggets player was the team's undisputed star.

After missing EuroBasket 2017, Jokic returned to play with the Serbian national team in 2019 for the FIBA World Cup.

Expectations for Serbia were high for that competition because the team was coming off a silver medal at the European Championships and, with the addition of Jokic, seemed, on paper, capable of playing for a medal again.

However, Serbia did not make it beyond the quarterfinals, being eliminated by Argentina. In that competition, Jokic averaged 11.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game. Solid but not resounding numbers.

Many in Serbia criticized Jokic, pointing out that the real leader of the team during the competition had been Bogdan Bogdanovic and not him.

Jokic was also criticized for arriving at the Serbian NT training camp in poor physical condition. He had to lose weight to prepare for the World Cup.

Expectations for Serbia were also quite high at EuroBasket 2022, and Pesic's national team was considered one of the favorites for the final victory.

Jokic's performance on the court was of the highest level this time. The Nuggets player averaged 21.7 points, 10 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game during the competition. Still, those numbers were not enough to carry Serbia, which was eliminated in the Round of 16 by Italy.

In the game against Italy, Jokic had his best performance of the tournament, finishing with 32 points, 13 rebounds, and 4 assists.

"I don't like singling out performances, but Jokic in that game against Italy at EuroBasket was fantastic; what more should he have done?" Serbian media member Darko Lazarevic told BasketNews.

"What I wonder instead is why, in a game where he was doing so well, Pesic only kept him on the field for 29 minutes," Lazarevic wondered. "If your star is playing like that, you keep him on the court as much as possible. I really have a hard time blaming Jokic for the elimination at EuroBasket in 2022, his performance was top-notch. I disagree with those who try to get the message across that our national team plays better when Jokic is not there, I think that's an unrealistic opinion."

The perception of Nikola Jokic in Serbia, then, remains quite debated. There are those who do not yet consider him among the greats of Serbian basketball and those who believe that successive coaches on Serbia's bench in recent years have not been able to exploit Jokic's talent sufficiently.

"I believe that the problem that many Serbs have with Jokic is that he doesn't look or behave in the way that the average Serb would love him to," Nikola Stojkovic of MozzartSport told BasketNews. "Jokic is not particularly interested in public appearances; outside of the court, his interest is on other things; he avoids media as much as he can. A lot of Serbs would love him to be more like Luka Doncic outside of the court, but that's not gonna happen because Jokic has a very different personality from Luka."

"Because he only won that silver medal in Rio with the national team, many people in the country still identify Bogdan Bogdanovic as the iconic figure of the national team in recent years," Stojkovic added.

"Bogdanovic is the one that everybody remembers when we talk about the success of the Serbian NT from 2014 to this day. With Jokic, instead, there's still a mixed feeling because, especially in recent years, when he played for the national team, he didn't deliver good results, while Bogdanovic was able to do that when Jokic was not around".

With the Paris Olympics starting in the coming days, Nikola Jokic will have the opportunity to silence all those in Serbia who doubt his leadership ability and real attachment to the national team.

Should another negative result come, however, perhaps it will be a sign that his relationship with the Serbian national team and, in general, with public opinion in his country is not destined to take off.

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