Every summer, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić leaves the NBA spotlight and returns to Sombor, Serbia, the farming town of 41,000 where he grew up. Away from cameras, the three-time NBA Most Valuable Player trades arenas for stables, spending most mornings at his private Dream Catcher hippodrome training trotters, shoveling manure and repairing the track he purchased after winning his first MVP award in 2021.
A private pact in a public place
Local residents follow an unwritten rule: no selfies, no autograph requests and no interruptions when Jokić is out with his wife Natalija and their two children. The arrangement helps the 6-foot-11 star enjoy a routine that begins with a 7 a.m. text—accompanied by a gorilla and an ant emoji—to conditioning coach and godfather Nebojša Vagić, signaling he is biking to the renovated gym he funded for youth club KK Joker.
After strength work, Jokić pedals to the stables, checks on his horses and often ends the morning floating in the canal at a riverside spot locals call The Štrand. Evenings are reserved for family dinners or beer with boyhood friends who insist on splitting every tab. When that fails, Jokić reportedly slips cash-filled envelopes under their doors.
‘Just one of us’ on the playground
At least once a week, the NBA champion joins former teammates for 3-on-3 games on the outdoor court beside Dositej Obradović Primary School. Jokić paid to resurface the court and install professional baskets; a four-story mural of him towers overhead with the phrase “Don’t be afraid to fail big.” Friends such as longtime buddy Nemanja Pavkov foul him freely. “He might be a superstar in Denver, but here he’s just Nikola,” Pavkov said.
Horses ignite the emotion basketball rarely does
Jokić, 30, shows more visible passion at the track than he does on the court. In July he sprinted onto the dirt in Subotica, spraying champagne and crying after his horse Demon Dell’Est won a major race. By contrast, when the Nuggets clinched the 2023 NBA title he merely said, “The job is done, we can go home now.”
Friends delight in teasing him about his stable. Vagić recalls telling Jokić the barn “smelled like perfume,” a joke that infuriated the meticulous owner. “Say anything about basketball and he shrugs. Talk about the horses and he goes crazy,” Vagić laughed.
A game built on vision—and skepticism of old drills
Jokić’s path from Sombor’s cracked asphalt to NBA stardom included early stops with KK Vojvodina in Novi Sad and Mega Baskets in Belgrade. Coaches remember a teenager who questioned conditioning sessions that required players to run lines holding balls overhead for 15 minutes. Teammates initially mistook the pushback for laziness; Jokić argued the exercise did nothing for post footwork or passing.
At Mega, he memorably nutmegged veteran center Ratko Varda before Varda responded with an elbow that required stitches. Another day, he scored eight straight times in a one-on-one drill against 6-9 forward Nemanja Krstić, then hugged his teammate and said, “You can’t defend this.”
The NBA’s greatest second-round steal
Despite questions about his conditioning, the Nuggets selected Jokić 41st overall in the 2014 NBA draft while American viewers saw a Taco Bell Quesarito commercial. One decade later, he owns three MVP trophies and, in 2024-25, became the first center to average a triple-double: 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists on 57.6% shooting.
Why he always comes home
For Jokić, Sombor offers a slower rhythm. Coach Vagić, who once lived in London, says a single day in the town “lasts two or three days in a big city.” Locals still recall the MVP biking past with a polite “Are you OK?” to elderly shoppers. Pavkov’s grandmother summed up the sentiment after one encounter: “Nikola is always here. He’s just one of us.”
Source: ESPN.com
