"The Coaches Begged Me To STOP EATING" - Nikola Jokic Documentary

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Who would have thought that this chubby kid with the laziest walk imaginable will one day be one of the biggest NBA superstars?
Apparently not even Jokic himself, since he actually quit at 13 years old, just to be in the stable with his horses more.
Jokic would post ludicrous numbers like 34 points 19 rebounds and 5 blocks in the serbian youth league on a diet strictly consisting of junk food.
Cookies and cakes, a lot of Burek- a traditional pie in Serbia, and about 3 liters of Coka Cola per day.
When he got signed to a professional team at 17 years old, coaches were shocked by how bad Nikola’s conditioning was. He couldn’t do a single push up. Not even the modified ones known as girl push ups.
Jokic actually suffered a minor injury on the first practice with the pros as he couldn’t keep up with the pace.
Just to be able to survive practice, the team assigned a conditioning coach and wouldn’t even let him train with his teammates but instead have him do specific exercises on the side for an entire month, just to get him in proper physical condition.
They also assigned a nutritionist to help Nikola with his diet but as he says it himself this was unsuccessful.
Coaches were annoyed that Jokic would eat 2 healthy meals that the nutritionist recommended but he would then also eat an entire pie of Burek and 2 liters of coke, completely destroying the diet plan.
Perhaps the most obvious and hilarious story that describes Nikola’s lack of stamina back then, is the time when he complained of a sore hand and had to miss a game because of it.
Coaches were confused and were trying to figure out if this was because of a fall during practice, or a new exercise that put a strain on his body. They asked him about all of this but couldn’t find what caused it.
After excluding everything possible, someone remembered that the day before, the team sent Jokic and a few of his teammates to a local school to sign autographs. He signed cards one by one for more than an hour and this is the actual reason for the soreness.
Despite these almost comical examples of bad conditioning, he was unstoppable on the court and was voted the MVP of the adriatic league- a competition of the best teams from the Balkans.
So Jokic had the full support of the coaching staff and the owner of the team who also happened to be his agent. To understand this dynamic, as well as get a better view of how Jokic got drafted in the NBA, along with other top players from the region, we need to include Misko Raznatovic in this story.
Raznatovic is a basketball agent who also owns a team called Mega in the Serbian league. The roster is almost entirely comprised of young players represented by his agency. So it’s basically like a farm for breeding young talent. And the best of them get the right exposure in terms of playing time and shots per game to be able to shine and get noticed by the big teams.
Jokic and Boban Marjanovic actually played together in Mega. Ivica Zubac, Nikola Jovic and Vlatko Cancar are some other familiar names who got drafted with the help of Raznatovic and playing in Mega.
But Nikola’s arrival in Denver almost didn’t happen. Just a few months prior, he was supposed to be traded to Barcelona. In fact everything was arranged. All the paperwork, the contract, finances everything.
Raznatovic had a great relationship with Barcelona’s front office members so they came to Serbia and before signing they wanted to sit together in the stands to watch Jokic play for Mega. This was a pure formality before the official signing.
But nobody could have predicted or even imagined what would happen right there and then.
Inexplicably, Nikola was horrible in that game.
With one of the biggest teams in Europe watching, and an agreement in place, he didn’t want to look at the basket.
Not only that, but according to Misko, Jokic seemed as if he didn’t want to even move a finger out there on the court.
He finished the game with only 6 points going 1 for 8 from the field.
His head coach at the time recalls that Nikola’s girlfriend Natalija, who’s now his wife went to the United States for studies, so he was emotionally drained during that period, and one time even said that he wanted to quit basketball.
Coach said that he needed a lot of time to bring him back mentally.
So what happened with Barcelona? Well of course they know what type of player Jokic was at the time. They scouted him a lot, and one bad game wouldn’t mess up all the brilliant performances that he’d shown up to that point.
But since his agent Misko Raznatovic was such good friends with Barcelona’s people, he told them that he understands there’s a slight hesitancy after the disaster that everyone witnessed.

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