Nikola Jokic was asked, at the Nuggets’ media day, what playing for the Serbian national team and in high-pressure international games had given him. His answer went further than the question. “I wish every NBA player could go and play six months in Europe, just to see how much pressure there is,” he said, according to BasketNews.
He gave a fixture list rather than a theory: “You play Wednesday against Olympiacos in Greece, and then you’re playing at home against Red Star or Partizan. If you lose three games in a row, it’s a big deal over there. People take it seriously. There’s a lot of pride.” And on the NBA: “I know it sounds stupid, but in the NBA, you can see that certain players need to get their shots, their points, or whatever stats.”
Jokic is talking about a place he knows. According to BasketNews, he came up at Mega Basket in Serbia before joining the NBA in 2015. He has three MVP awards, an NBA title with Denver in 2023, Olympic silver from Rio and bronze from Paris.
Darnell, for his part, did the six-month stint in the other direction. He extended it by a quarter of a century.
On Sunday, I read the sentence to my mother, in Indiana. Six months in Europe to see the pressure. She asked how long I had done. I said: let me tell you, I came for one year, in 2000, with one bag. My first week in Charleroi, I took sixteen shots. The coach pulled me out and asked who had done the box-out. Nobody. It was me who was supposed to. We lost seventy-two to seventy-one. On Monday, the baker knew. On Tuesday, the postman knew. My mother asked if I had understood it in six months. I said: no, it took me twenty-five years, and I still say “not bad” too soon. She said: see? He’s being kind, he’s only giving them six months.
Jokic did not say who would pay for the plane tickets. He did say the essential thing: “In Europe and with the national team, the most important thing is to win the game.”
It’s true, we checked: BasketNews.
