Denver Nuggets star player and reigning MVP Nikola Jokic recalled his experience with his childhood coach, and how it impacted him and his values in life and in playing the game.
In a newly-released excerpt from his upcoming book “Why So Serious? The Untold Story of NBA Champion Nikola Jokic,” writer Denver Post Nuggets beat writer Mike Singer explored the childhood of Jokic and recalled stories from his early days playing basketball. The book will release on December 3.
In the excerpt, Singer helped Jokic recall his experience with coach Isidor Rudic. One of the fond memories Jokic touched on is how Rudic stopped them from living a party-goer lifestyle back during his teen years.
“At the time in Serbia, when you’re like 15, 16, 17, you start drinking, and he didn’t even allow us to drink,” Nikola said. “I think we respect him so much, and didn’t want to ruin that respect.”
The consequence was severe back then. On the first offense, they were banned from practice for a week. A second offense is equal to a month of ban from practice, and a third offense is a boot from the team. Fortunately, the stern discipline seemed to work as everyone stopped after the second offense.
Denver Nuggets on Nikola Jokic Returning: “That’s Not Fair”
After missing three games of the Nuggets due to personal reasons, Nikola Jokic returned to the court late last week in a game against the Dallas Mavericks. With the circumstances at hand, the Nuggets was poised for an easy win against Dallas.
For one, their star player Jokic is back in court and everyone is expecting nothing short of a stellar play from the reigning MVP. Furthermore, the Mavs didn’t have Luka Doncic in the game back then, thus greatly diminishing the tea in power.
However, the Nuggets still lost, with a final score of 123-120 for the Mavs. Among many other reasons, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone blamed the overreliance of the team on Nikola Jokic and their confidence on his return as the main cause of the loss.
“I think a lot of guys exhaled because Nikola’s back,” coach Malone said. They expected Superman to carry the day, and that’s not fair. Do your own job. Everybody’s gotta do their job.”
Despite this, Malone still praised the six-time NBA All-Star for his excellent performance.
“Nikola obviously showed once again why he’s the best player in the world,” the coach added. “Misses a week of basketball, three games, and goes out and gets a triple-double.”
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Dan has been active in sports since 2016 and has worked behind the scenes as a scriptwriter for basketball, volleyball, and other sports. At a time, Dan has also been working as a sports commentator for CBA Pilipinas. During the pandemic, he has also been actively writing betting articles for CashBet and BetNow.
