There seems to be no assurance yet for the Serbian national men’s basketball team that three-time NBA Most Valuable Player and Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic will be playing in the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Denver Nuggets Nikola Jokic and Serbia basketball
Serbia basketball head coach Svetislav Pesic was recently on the Politike podcast and was asked about Jokic’s status in relation to the player’s chances of playing in the Olympics.
“Nikola Jokic’s participation alone certainly means something in every sense,” Pesic said (h/t Eurohoops).
“From both the aspect of his individual quality and from the aspect of personality that Jokic is. Because when I say that Jokic is a better guy than he is a player, they all faint. Like, ‘you’re courting Jokic.’ Of course I’m courting him, because I want to point that out.”
With or without the Nuggets big man, Serbia is going to be among those expected to seriously vie for the gold medal. Serbia is currently ranked fourth in the world overall just behind the United States, Spain, and Germany. They also just finished runner-up in the 2023 FIBA World Cup without Jokic on the roster, losing in the championship game to Germany.
Of course, the floor and ceiling of Serbia will always be higher if Jokic is part of the team. Considered by many as the best player in the world right now, Jokic’s potential presence in the Olympics would have a huge impact on the basketball tournament.
In the 2023-24 NBA season, Jokic averaged 26.4 points, 9.0 assists, and 12.4 rebounds while shooting 58.3 percent from the field and posting a 61.2 effective field goal percentage.
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