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Nikola Jokic tears up at hero’s welcome after helping Serbia win silver
NBA die-hards got a sense of how special a player Nikola Jokic could be during his rookie season with the Denver Nuggets, a campaign that saw the former Adriatic League MVP and 2014 second-round draft pick produce stellar per-minute numbers that evoked All-Star-caliber historical comparisons, earning him recognition as arguably the year’s top freshman not named Karl-Anthony Towns. For fans who weren’t checking too many late-season Nuggets games, though, it was the 2016 Summer Olympics — and particularly the 21-year-old center’s tremendous 25-point, six-rebound, three-assist performance in Serbia’s 94-91 group-play loss to the United States — that served as Jokic’s coming-out party, putting the world on notice that the gifted shooter and playmaker with a veteran’s feel might be a bona-fide star in the making.
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Neither Jokic nor Serbia fared nearly as well in their rematch with the Americans, with the player chipping in just six points and four rebounds in 24 minutes as his side fell by 30 points in the gold medal game. Still, finishing second to the U.S. earned Serbia its first Olympic medal in men’s basketball since becoming an independent state, which was more than enough reason for Jokic to receive a hero’s welcome upon his return to his hometown of Sombor — a welcome that left the young big man overcome with emotion:
Jokic certainly earned the praise with his work for the national team. After finishing fourth at Eurobasket 2015, Serbia needed to win their 2016 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament to earn a spot in the Rio Games. They did just that, going 4-0 in front of their home-nation fans in Belgrade to gain entry to the Summer Olympics, with Jokic averaging 17.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists in less than 21 minutes per game to lead the way and earn tournament MVP honors.
Jokic started slow start through the first three games of the group stage in Rio, but cranked up his play as the tournament wore on. After shining against the U.S., he chipped in 11 points to help knock off Croatia in the quarterfinals, and then pulled down 11 rebounds with three steals as part of the mammoth defensive effort that choked out Australia to set the stage for Serbia’s silver — all this despite being the youngest player on the national team by more than two years.
The inside-out combo of point guard Milos Teodosic and Miroslav Raduljica will both be on the other side of 30 by the time play tips off at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. But with more than half of Serbia’s silver-medal roster now age 26 or younger — and with Jokic looking like the kind of hype-justifying talent (even with room to improve) to prove worthy of Nuggets head coach Michael Malone’s assertion that he “wouldn’t trade [Jokic] for anybody in the world” — it’s entirely possible that this isn’t the last time Jokic will stand in front of his countrymen with an Olympic medal around his neck, being hailed as a hometown hero helping elevate his republic’s standing in the international basketball community. No matter how many times he does it, though, I’d bet that he’ll never forget what this first time felt like.
Hat-tip to r/NBA.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
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