Nikola Jokic has progressed from draft pick No. 41 to two-time Kia MVP and now the owner of the NBA’s richest contract in history.

Jokic agreed to a five-year, $264 million supermax agreement with the Denver Nuggets.

The team announced the arrangement on Friday.

It begins in 2023-24 and runs through 2027-28, when, if Jokic exercises his option for that season, he could earn around $60 million.

The Serbian great has had a remarkable rise in his seven NBA seasons, all with the Nuggets. He became an All-Star in his fourth season and has been at that level ever since, winning MVP in each of the previous two seasons after averaging 26.4 points in 2020-21 and 27.1 points this season.

And MVP votes haven’t been close; Jokic has received nearly 75% of the votes polled for that honor over the last two seasons.

The 27-year-old Jokic is coming off one of his best seasons, and he’s inventing a new category as a result. He’s the first NBA player to reach 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, and 500 assists in a single season.

Jokic also averaged 13.8 rebounds and 7.9 assists for a Denver squad without two key players: Jamal Murray (ACL recovery) and Michael Porter Jr. (back). He led the Nuggets to a 48-34 record and the sixth seed in the Western Conference, where they were eliminated in the first round by the eventual NBA champion Golden State Warriors.

The organization has seen significant changes since the end of the season, beginning with the departure of president of basketball operations Tim Connelly to division rival Minnesota. His departure increased the responsibilities of Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth, who negotiated a trade on Wednesday that sent guards Will Barton and Monte Morris to the Wizards in exchange for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Ish Smith. In addition, the franchise traded JaMychal Green and a 2027 protected first-round draft pick to Oklahoma City for Peyton Watson and two future second-round picks.

If everyone is healthy, the lineup may look like this: Murray, Caldwell-Pope, Jokic, Aaron Gordon, and Porter.

To think, Jokic was selected in the second round of the 2014 draft, while a Taco Bell commercial aired. Not that he knew that day.

“I was sleeping,” Jokic recently said during a Zoom conversation from Serbia.

The athlete dubbed “Joker” is unique in both his playing style and temperament. He’s a low-key star who enjoys spending time at his horse stable in Serbia. When he earned his second consecutive MVP award, he rode to the stable in a two-wheeled cart pulled by his horse.

As the 13th player to win back-to-back NBA MVP trophies, he will be remembered with basketball legends like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Moses Malone, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Should Jokic three-peat, he will join Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, and Bill Russell.