The Serbian big man Nikola Jokic wasn’t a household name when he got drafted by the Denver Nuggets back in 2014. Quite frankly most fans didn’t even know what he looked like when the 41st overall pick of the 2nd round was selected. This is because ESPN aired a Taco Bell commercial when the pick was announced! At the time, there weren’t an abundance of european athletes in the NBA with most of them fitting the mold of one of two athletes, either a crafty guard or an extremely large big man who had some shooting ability. Jokic fit the mold of the latter, but not in the best ways. He stood 6 '11 which wasn't overly tall for his position, but was considered oversized in weight and deemed a bottom-tier athlete. He also could shoot a bit but wasn’t considered one of the better stretch bigs in his class. Though with the help of his large wingspan and supposed great basketball IQ, there was hope he could be a serviceable backup center in the league. A direct quote from a scouting report made about Jokic was, “Unfortunately, his defense will likely prevent him from ever playing 30-plus minutes or starting. However, there's no shame in being a respectable reserve on a winning team in the future.” (Daniel O’Brien, Bleacher Report). But what happened next came to everyone's surprise as Jokic played well when given minutes and earned more and more.
By his second season he was averaging nearly 17 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists a game, budding into a star big man in the league. By his 3rd season with the Nuggets he became a full time starter and was considered one of the best centers in the game. The Nuggets showed good faith to their star and signed him to a 5 year extension worth 147 million total. After this he started to receive accolades for his stellar play, becoming an all star in the 2018-2019 season and continuing to be one every year since. In the 20/21 season he took his game to a new level and won MVP of the league, and when you thought he couldn’t get better, repeated in the 21/22 season. The Nuggets most recently rewarded their top 5 player in the league with a brand new supermax extension worth 5 years and 272 million, and he has shown no signs of slowing down with the current MVP polls ranking him at the favorite to win another MVP award, which would make it 3 consecutive years for the Serbian.
The story of Jokic is quite frankly a phenomenal one, going from second round pick who literally nobody knew about to one of the best centers of all time. It couples a recent increase in European athletes coming into the NBA and dominating the league with other stars such as Luka, Giannis, and Kristaps Porzingis.
One must question how these European prospects coming into the NBA and having so much success, especially when scouting them can be so difficult due to the limited minutes they play in European leagues. When you look at the draft profiles for some of these international draft prospect you will oftentimes see them averaging under 15 minutes played per game, less than 10 points per game, and at first glance, most don’t see why they are touted to be a high prospect. But I believe this is why these scouts are paid the big bucks to research athletes overseas because their training regime from childhood is simply different from those of kids raised in America. These top prospects will start playing professional basketball at age 15 or 16 with grown adults that are the best basketball players in their respective countries. That is why these guys may not get more than 15 minutes a game, because a 16 year old has no shot to be able to compete for 30 minutes against 25+ year olds. But they practice against them day in and day out, where their skills and raw tools are put on display. The stigma against European athletes is that they are always raw prospects coming in, that need to be developed in America. But with the likes of guys like Jokic, or Luka Doncic, one must wonder how long this stigma will continue with these athletes' ability to produce at the highest level quickly. I believe it will be interesting to see how long Jokic continues to dominate the NBA and how many more of his European counterparts come in and continue to have success in this world's best basketball league.
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