Nikola Jokic and Natalija Jokic welcomed their daughter in September 2021.PHOTO: NATALIJA JOKIC INSTAGRAM

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic’s wife Natalija Jokic is always cheering him on.

The couple’s romance began in high school and has persisted throughout Nikola’s basketball career. Nikola followed the NBA player to Denver after he joined the Nuggets in 2015, and they married in October 2020.

Nikola and Natalija welcomed their daughter, Ognjena, in September 2021, and they’ve been spotted supporting Nikola at his games ever since. They were even present when Nikola became the first NBA player to average 25 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists in his first 50 career postseason games (according to Sports Illustrated) in April 2023.

Natalija even made headlines for her support of her husband in June 2023 when Altitude TV shared a video on X (formerly Twitter) of her cheering him on in the stands while wearing a Nuggets jersey as Nikola and his team won their first NBA championship.

Earlier that year, NIkola told Serbia’s Arena TV how vital it had been for him to have his wife and daughter’s support.

“I think all of us who have a wife and kids should be happy with the persons we have beside us,” he said in January 2023. “When you have a normal life, it lifts you up and only helps you.”

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Natalija and Ognjena were also photographed at the 2024 NBA Playoffs, which began on April 20 and featured the Nuggets’ victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.

So, who is Nikola Jokic’s wife? Here’s all you should know about Natalija Jokic and her marriage to the NBA star.

She and Nikola both hail from Sombor, Serbia

NATALIJA JOKIC INSTAGRAM

Natalija and Nikola are both from Sombor, Serbia, a small city of about 47,000 people in the northwestern part of the country. Though the couple have been living in Denver since 2015, Nikola frequently speaks fondly of their home nation.

“It’s a really small town on the northwest of Serbia. We have really nice nature,” Nikola described to SLAM magazine. “But I just like the people there. It’s like family.”

When Nikola and Natalija first arrived to Denver for his NBA career, they carried one small piece of home into their pre-furnished apartment. According to Bleacher Report, they hung a little black-and-white photograph of Kralja Peter, Sombor’s main street where they used to spend summer nights and eat ice cream.

According to the Denver Post, the pair frequently return to Sombor during the NBA offseason. After winning his second straight MVP award in May 2022, Nikola accepted it from a horse stable in Sombor, with some of his Nuggets coaches there, owing to a surprise visit arranged by Natalija. Nikola has also claimed that once he is done playing in the NBA, he and his family would return to Sombor permanently.

“After my career is over, I’m gonna go back there,” Nikola told Bleacher Report. “It’s super slow — not too much going on — but you have everything. You have a canal, nature; you can get peace of mind outside the city. I just like to be some place where I know how to drive a car without navigation. How I say, no place like home? Something like that.”

She and Nikola are high school sweethearts

NATALIJA JOKIC INSTAGRAM

Natalija and Nikola have been together since they were teenagers, and Natalija shared a flashback snapshot of the couple from October 2012 on Instagram, when they were both only 17 years old. Natalija routinely posts photos of them on social media, documenting their vacations and key life events such as their wedding and the birth of their baby.

Natalija frequently expresses her passion and admiration for her spouse on Instagram as well. In February 2019, the first season Nikola was named to the NBA All-Star squad, Natalija shared a selfie of herself and Nikola with the message, “All Star of my heart.”

Despite Nikola’s meteoric rise in basketball, the couple has maintained a grounded demeanor. In February 2021, when Nikola earned Western Conference Player of the Month, he told reporters that he celebrated “with my wife at home.”

“I mean, that’s what I did,” he added.

She moved to the U.S. before Nikola to play college volleyball

NATALIJA JOKIC INSTAGRAM

While Nikola continued to play basketball in Serbia, Natalija came to the United States in 2013 to play volleyball at Seminole State College in Oklahoma. The former setter spent two seasons at Seminole State and was one of the reasons Nikola decided to pursue a basketball career in the United States.

According to a 2017 Sports Illustrated feature of Nikola, the center declined a contract offer from the Denver Nuggets to join their squad mid-season in 2014. Nikola began to contemplate moving to Denver after thinking about his two elder brothers, who adored the United States, and Natalija, who was in Oklahoma at the time.

When Nikola moved to Denver to play for the Nuggets in 2015, Natalija left Seminole State and her volleyball career to follow. She graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver in 2018, according to an Instagram photo she published.

She lived in an apartment with Nikola and his two older brothers

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When Nikola first moved to Denver to play for the Nuggets in 2015, he lived in a three-bedroom apartment downtown with his two older brothers — Nemanja and Strahinja — and his then-girlfriend Natalija. For Natalija, living with the three Jokic brothers meant witnessing several intense indoor basketball games, thanks to a mini-hoop they hung in the hallway, per Sports Illustrated.

“It’s a little small for us now,” Nikola told the outlet, “but we’re still playing one-on-one, taking charges, swearing at each other.”

The Jokic brothers weren’t only competitive when it came to apartment basketball matches; they also had intense video game battles and Uno games, the latter of which Nikola claims his brothers always cheated at.

“They don’t know how to lose,” Natalija told Bleacher Report about living with Nikola and his brothers.

Despite the fun and games the brothers had in the apartment, Nikola found the adjustment to Denver to be difficult. Having his siblings and Natalija there helped ease the transition to his new city and country, though.

“My brothers came with me and my girlfriend came with me, so we tried to make our home here and not allow all the different things to bother us,” he told SLAM magazine. “I actually like Denver as a city — it reminds me a little of my hometown in Serbia because I like nature, mountains, rivers and trees.”

She Nikola got married in October 2020 in their hometown

NATALIJA JOKIC INSTAGRAM

Nikola and Natalija married on October 24, 2020, in Sombor, Serbia, after first becoming engaged in January 2020. The wedding was originally slated for June 2020, but it was postponed because the NBA moved their season to the bubble in Orlando, Florida, due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

A video of Nikola and Natalija’s wedding appeared on Twitter, showing the NBA star center dancing and singing with his new bride. Natalija also uploaded numerous photographs from their wedding on Instagram, describing it as her “favorite party of all time.”

Nikola has kept a piece of his bride close by since their wedding day, even when he is traveling for the NBA. The Nuggets center now clips his wedding ring to his sneakers before each game, as evidenced by many photographs uploaded on Twitter.

The couple welcomed a daughter in September 2021

NATALIJA JOKIC INSTAGRAM

Nikola and Natalija became parents less than a year after their wedding, welcoming a baby girl in September 2021. They named their daughter Ognjena, which translates to “fiery” in Serbian. Natalija shared a photo at her baby shower on Instagram with the message, “Thank you 2021, you were my favorite so far.”

Nikola went on to have a breakout season after the birth of his daughter, winning the NBA MVP award for the second year in a row and leading the Nuggets to the playoffs. Natalija and Ognjena are frequently seen cheering him on from the sidelines, wearing jean jackets with his name and number (as shown in Natalija’s Instagram stories).

Learn about Nikola Jokić’s daughter, Ognjena.
However, Nikola has struggled to strike a balance between his NBA career and parenting. In a rare interview with Arena TV at his home in Serbia, Nikola discussed what it’s like to be away from his daughter while traveling for the NBA.

“I play 100 games away, I’m not home for 100 days,” he said. “When I come home, Ognjena is different. Literally in five days, she changes you know.”