Three meanings of joker: 1. Villain of the comics, a sadistic assassin who is an enemy of Batman; 2. Card from the deck (and other board games) that acts as a joker; 3. The “giant of Sombor”, a Serbian basketball player, 2.11 m tall and 129 kg in weight, two-time MVP, five-time All-Star, who just led the Denver Nuggets to the finals of the NBA, humiliating LeBron's Lakers in four games.
Jokic is unique because he unconsciously applies techniques from water polo and volleyball to basketball, sports he played as a boy in Sombor, a town 150 kilometers northwest of Belgrade where he was born 28 years ago and where he goes whenever he can with his wife. , Natalija (the girlfriend of adolescence), and their youngest daughter, before the long season of the North American professional league begins. A city of 45,000 inhabitants, deeply rooted in Serbian ethnic culture, surrounded by rivers, mountains and forests. "Like Colorado, but smaller, that's why I like Denver." In the living room of his house, he has a photograph of the main street, Kralja Peter, where as a young man he used to go window shopping and have ice cream with his friends.
After soccer and basketball, water polo is perhaps the most popular sport in Serbia, with public swimming pools in almost every town to practice it. This is what Jokic, the son of an agricultural engineer from the former Yugoslavia, did, informally, without playing for any team. The family was not experiencing hardships, but six people lived in his modest apartment: the couple, the three children (Nikola is the youngest) and the grandmother. A long way from there to the fabulous apartment he now has in the best suburban neighborhood of Denver.
Jokic is extraordinary because he is a center who grabs a rebound on defense and raises the ball like a point guard, with a gangly air but surprising speed, unlike someone of his size and high center of gravity. And from his vantage point above 2.10m, he surveys the landscape and is able to accurately pass the ball from distance, with one hand, in a single motion, between opposing players, without the need to step forward with the opposite leg or make an arc with the arm. In the style of water polo. Both sports have similarities: pressure and defense in the zone, counterattacks, the central role of the center, physical contact and the importance of patience.
The Joker, a boy clinging to the simple life of the town, played in Meta Basket of the Serbian Adriatic League when the Nuggets first took an interest in him and he did not see anything clear about going to the United States. But his girlfriend, Natalija, was already in the country studying and playing volleyball, which she left to move with him to Denver after being selected in the second round of the 2014 draft, a total unknown (that same year, ahead of him, the team selected Jusuf Nurkic and Gary Harris). But sometimes he wins the lottery.
Since joining the NBA nine years ago, Jokic has lost eighty pounds, built muscle (“I've never lifted anything heavier than a teaspoon before”) and vastly improved his technique. His vision to pass the ball is innate, and what sets him apart from the rest of the centers in the entire history of the NBA. But from scoring ten points in his first season, he has gone on to average 24.5, as well as 11.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists, the very definition of an MVP despite Joel Embiid taking the distinction from him this year. .
The Joker is a true basketball wild card, scoring, rebounding and passing the ball like a god. And, for the Lakers, a villain like Batman.
