Before being selected by the Denver Nuggets in the 2014 NBA Draft out of his native Serbia, Nikola Jokic was an obese, Coca-Cola-drinking child with an odd fixation with horses and harness racing.

Despite having two elder brothers who were professional athletes and a 6-foot-11 physique, trainers recall him finding it difficult to do a single push-up. Additionally, the media and NBA teams largely overlooked the teenager. 

ESPN didn’t even bother to play the announcement when Denver finally selected Jokic in the second round, long after the top prospects had been selected; instead, it ran a late-night Taco Bell commercial.

Even though Jokic had another year before joining the squad, he had already transformed when he finally came to the US in 2015: on the trip to Denver, he drank the last Coke of his life, and as soon as he got there, he started an intense training program that completely changed the way his physique looked.

After leading the Nuggets to a Game 1 victory over the Miami Heat in the Finals Opener on Thursday, Jokic—who is now a married father—is the greatest star on the largest platform in the NBA. Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal lauded the two-time NBA Most Valuable Player for his “impressive passing, scoring, and leadership” as he recorded a triple-double (double figures in three statistical categories).

Before Sunday night’s NBA Finals in Denver, Mail Sport examines Nikola Jokic’s incredible rise from a modest Serbian hamlet to the pinnacle of basketball. 

Jokic was reared in a two-bedroom apartment with his parents, two siblings, and grandmother after being born in the little town of Sombor.

“It’s a really small town on the northwest of Serbia,” Jokic described the roughly 40,000-person city to SLAM magazine. We have a very pleasant nature. However, I simply enjoy the folks there. It resembles family.

Jokic was influenced by his brother Nemanja, who played collegiate basketball in the US, and his brother Strahinja, who was a decade older and a professional basketball player in Europe. Branislav, Jokic’s father, was an agricultural engineer.

In fact, Jokic’s obsession with harness racing caused him to give up basketball for six months during his early adolescence.

“I’ve always played basketball,” Jokic said to SLAM magazine. My two elder brothers were basketball players. They made me fall in love with basketball. Every time, we would play together. 

However, I eventually began to get involved with horse racing. I have a newfound admiration for horses’ grace and beauty. For me, it was much like a pastime. I didn’t take it seriously. Furthermore, I wasn’t very serious about basketball. I was ambivalent about both.

Jokic stated that he turned his focus back to basketball after competing in one amateur race as a jockey and placing fourth.

Not only was he growing up in basketball-mad Serbia, but NBA clips were also easily accessible because of YouTube. Abruptly enthralled by the best players in the league, Jokic quickly became a basketball devotee.

He remarked, “I started to watch highlights from some players when I was like 14 and they would just show certain moves and not the entire games.” It was similar to Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. These days, they have that broadcast on television for major games, the Finals, or All-Star games.

Jokic adopted a one-handed passing style that was reminiscent of water polo, one of Serbia’s national sports, and had an instantaneous, instinctive grasp of the game.

Dejan Milojevic, Jokic’s coach of Mega Basket of the Adriatic League, told Sports Illustrated that “Nikola’s passing isn’t decent.” “It’s remarkable.”

While other centers were figuring out how to live close to the basket, Jokic was refining his all-around skills, which were further enhanced by his selfless play.

Jokic’s issue was conditioning, not competence.

“I could tell right away that this guy is really talented,” Milojevic remarked. “But his physical condition is appalling.”

Jokic consumed up to three liters of Coca-Cola a day as a teenager, but he started to lose weight with Mega Basket. 

Jokic was first assigned to practice only with a trainer for a month by Milojevic before being placed on Mega Basket’s youth squad, where coaches took an instant interest in him.

Jokic is still passionate about horses, as evidenced by his recent off-season visit to a Serbian stable.

Coach Branislav Vicentic of Jokic’s junior squad questioned him whether he had rehearsed the drill after he executed a difficult move perfectly that required him to dribble two balls at once.

“He stated,” “No, this is the initial instance,” Vicentic stated to SI.com.

Before joining Mega Basket’s senior team, Jokic won the junior league MVP award. He then carried over his success to the senior team.

Jokic was lulling defenses to sleep with his slow, plodding pace before unleashing lightning-quick passes and a unique range of shots, while others were depending on speed and athleticism.

According to ESPN pundit and former college coach Fran Fraschilla, “he’s so slow that his basketball mind slows down and he sees the game in slow motion,” as reported by SI.com. “He’s not sped up like a lot of young players are, which allows him to make plays.”

When NBA scouts started to take notice of Jokic in 2014, he eventually entered the draft and the Nuggets selected him 41st overall.

Although there was an appearance prejudice and the player lacked muscular definition, an unidentified NBA executive informed Sports Illustrated that he could have been selected higher.

Jokic would play in the Adriatic League for one more season, winning a rebounding title and MVP awards.

He eventually signed with Denver in 2015, and after a few years of courting, he moved into a three-bedroom apartment with his siblings and his then-girlfriend, Natalija, a longtime acquaintance from Somber.