Jokic is a devastating figure when it comes to the concept of stardom, and he's unlike most of the NBA gods we've seen before.
We have the impression that the stars are competitive and train very hard. For example, Kobe Bryant at four o'clock in the morning in Los Angeles, Jordan who will repay his opponent, and Iverson, who fell countless times and was injured and did not admit defeat. After decades of accumulation, such a concept has been formed: if you don't compete, if you don't train hard, and don't care about body management, then you can't be a big star.
But Jokic is different, he is not competitive, he is not competitive, he is not in contention, he does not train hard, but he is happy with the situation. Even the most fundamental question — whether or not he loves basketball — is questionable to him.
It stands to reason that a player like Jokic, not to mention being an MVP, or even winning a championship, is a question of whether he can gain a foothold in the NBASo, let me tell you what an inspirational Jokic is like introducing Jordan, Kobe, and James, and I really don't know where to start
Jokic makes us feel so much contrast because whether in the United States or China, the environment in which we live is so much that we are incomparable. Because it's too rolly, if you don't play with your life, you can't do it, if you don't play with your life, you will have no food, and if you don't play with your life, you will be eliminated
Although NBA players make a lot of money, if you remove a few zeros from their income, it will be the same as the world we live in, one word - volume
Based on the calculation that 15 people on each team have regular contracts, there are a total of 450 NBA players on the staff, plus two-way contracts and scattered short-term jobs, almost 500 people have food. These 500 people served bowls to eat inside, but there were thousands of Wang Baoqiang squatting outside. If you don't compete and don't train hard, you will be forced by any Wang Bao to enter the door and steal your job every minute
Even these 500 people are very distinct. According to this year's payroll, a total of 18 people have a pre-tax salary of 40 million, and their total income is 800 million. Broken down to the payroll of each team, the highest Warriors are 226 million, the lowest is 130 million for the Pacers, and the total salary of the 30 teams is close to 50 billion based on the median of 165 million. The conclusion is: 3.6% of the total population occupies 16% of the wealth.
Jokic is one of those 18 and is tied for third with James and Embiid. If he doesn't roll along, can he go from a second-round show to MVP?
When I was a child, there was a song that became very popular, and it was sung like this: "Happiness is not a drizzle, it will not fall from the sky by itself." "At that time, the society was not so rolled, as long as you worked hard, as long as you worked hard, there were a lot of opportunities.
Jokic's answer was the opposite, and in his opinion, his happiness was like a drizzle, falling from the sky on its own. Whether it is entering the NBA, playing as a starter, pleasing a wife, being an MVP, or winning the championship, all of them are not asked for by themselves, in his words: I never thought of all this (expected), my career and life are like a slow uphill, I get a little bit up, I have never experienced a major setback, and finally I have reached the current (height).
Not to mention MVP and championship, even playing basketball is not his goal in life, he has never had any goal in life.
Jokic played basketball because his eldest brother played basketball, so he followed it out of curiosity, and later went to watch the carriage race with his father, and his interest and attention shifted again. He was willing to participate in the NBA draft because his childhood girlfriend Natalia had gone to the United States to play volleyball at a university a year ago. At that time, Connelly, the general manager of the Nuggets, was not sure whether Jokic would come to play, so he did a full investigation and found that his girlfriend was in the United States, and Jokic made up his mind for her possibly stay, but he only used the No. 15 pick in the second round, and the first round was selected by Mike Dermott, and he and the Bulls were exchanged for Nurkic
Natalia and Jokic are both from the small Serbian town of Sombor, and the two families live very close, five minutes walk away, so they met each other since childhood, and fell in love when they were 17 years old in high school. Jokic thought that he would be fine to play in Europe like his big brother, but if he didn't play in the NBA, he didn't know how many years the long-distance relationship with Natalia would last. So, a year after he was selected, he went to report to the Nuggets
Getting ahead in the NBA is not Jokic's goal, and he didn't think about it at all.
In his first year with the Nuggets, there were several people on the inside who were ahead of the line, like J.J. Hickson, Faried, Nurkic and even French center Joffrey Lauvergne, who was only the fourth or even fifth option
Jokic was only 20 years old at the time, so he was relieved to play off the bench, who knew that there was a game against the Spurs and scored 23 points and 12 rebounds, and Coach Ma asked him to start for the injured Hixon, which caught him off guard. He didn't win a single game in these 7 starts, so Coach Ma asked him to play as a substitute again.
In the last three games of Jokic's first season, the Nuggets had no chance of making the playoffs, and Coach Ma began experimenting with his and Nurkic's "twin towers". In Jokic's second season, the "Twin Towers" played their first eight games, but they didn't win much, with 3 wins and 5 losses. Jokic ran to tell Coach Ma that he should let himself play as a substitute, and Coach Ma listened, and only Nurkic started alone. But after playing 14 games like this, he still didn't win much, and Coach Ma used Jokic to replace Nurkic as the starter, so that until February of the following year, Nurkic was replaced by Portland, and Jokic has occupied the Nuggets' starting center position so far
Until the West Final in the bubble, Jokic didn't think about managing his body well. He likes to eat meat, drink cola, and the power room is almost there, because there is no pressure, and he doesn't know what it means to be a leader
Before being elected MVP, Jokic had always eaten, drank, and trained by his temperament. Later, everyone said that he was too fat, so he hired a nutritionist and ate strictly according to the recipeBut in the power room, Jokic just did it step by step, and he never forced himself to lift the required weight. Later in today's article, I posted a video of Porter Jr. interviewing him, and Jokic said to Porter Jr., you often practice with me, you should have seen how I practiced.
In the pre-game warm-up, Jokic also went through the motions step by step, this point was thrown into the next point, and if he couldn't shoot, he went to the next point, and he finished the shot. There is a video that is very popular, he can't score consecutive shots before the game, and even has three non-sticks, and he is not in a hurry
Jokic has never pursued stats, despite having 116 triple-doubles, surpassing James and second only to Westbrook in the current roster. Playing the Pistons two days ago, the opponent was too weak, Jokic actually had zero shots in the first and third quarters, played 25 minutes in the whole game, and only scored 4 points in 2 of 3, completely ignoring this will lower the season data and affect the MVP selection at the end of the season.
It's not often that we see Jokic angry, anxious, and seemingly careless all the time. The only two times, one with Booker almost got into a fight, and both of his brothers stepped up, and the other time the Heat's Morris Jr. badly blocked the foul, and Jokic suddenly lost his temper and ran over to push Mok Jr. hard from behind
The eldest brother is 13 years older than Jokic, the second brother is 11 years older, and there is a large age difference, and Jokic has been protected by his two older brothers since he was a child, which may be one of the reasons for his loose personality. At home, the most excited thing to watch the game is his father, the eldest brother can't play basketball anymore, and now he is in Denver to protect the younger brother. The second brother also played in American college, and later fell in love with free fighting, and also participated in professional competitions, and he was good at fighting, so under the protection of the two older brothers, Jokic didn't have to worry about anything
With a wife at home and relying on his brother when he goes out, Jokic has no ambitions and no interest in fame and fortune, but feels that it is a burden. He said to Porter Jr., when I retire, it's better not to remember who I am, and the child only needs to remember that I am her father, and that I don't need to remember that I play basketball
He and his wife's hometown of Songbor, with a population of only 40,000 or 50,000, a slow pace of life, quiet and comfortable, Jokic thought about retiring and bringing his wife and children home to live, usually drinking and eating with friends, no one came to play, so he hid in the stable to pass the time. Jokic's love for carriage racing has been made public, and he will travel around the world to participate in carriage racing when he can't be idle. He has his own stables in France, Sweden, Italy, and has quite a few horses
It's not accurate to say that Jokic doesn't have ideals, but he says he has a big vision, and that is to throw away his phone one day. Jokic doesn't play social media, he doesn't do live streaming, his phone is just a phone and navigation. But in his hometown of Sombor, he doesn't need navigation, and he doesn't need a mobile phone
So what did Jokic do to win MVPs and championships?
He told Porter Jr. that when the game reached the key point, he was not nervous or panicked, but prepared. He has his own approach before the game, which is to replay in his head all the situations that may arise in the next game, and then the situation on the field will be as if it had happenedHis "casualness" during training and warm-up can also relieve tension, because he does not do anything reluctantly, does not compete with himself
He also has a big advantage, that is, he has a very good memory, he has watched the video, he has fought with the opponent, what tactics he will play when he fights again, who runs where, he remembers it clearly, and often reminds his teammates to defend in advance, which is very similar to James
But at the end of the day, it's basketball that's so simple in Jokic's eyes. So many complex tactics, terminology, Jokic has long understood clearly and thoroughly, no need to memorize, this is talent, Jokic's real excellence
Jokic is an anti-inspirational type, and if his perception is deviated, it is not good for teenagers who like basketball, because not everyone has the same talent as him, and it is difficult to achieve talent without hard work.
But Jokic has some characteristics worth exploring, such as being indifferent to the world, indifferent to fame and fortune, how to survive in the disrupted contemporary society?
With his ability, he has already reached the level of a great grandmaster, and there is no problem in winning several MVPs, but he has no desire to monetize, so he can't be a classic idol or a vote king
As a person from a small Serbian town, it is unlikely that he has studied the old village in China, it is nothing more than nature. Although he is in the year of fighting and the peak of his career, his mentality of escaping the world and letting go of Manan Mountain is in line with the realm of "doing nothing and doing nothing".
I love what Jokic said: Basketball is actually simple. So I always remind myself that whether it's commentating or writing articles, my job is to make basketball a little simpler, to make it easier for fans to understand and more acceptable, not the other way around, to make basketball more complex and unpredictable