Nikola Jokić, born February 19, 1995, is a Serbian professional basketball player who plays center for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
He is a four-time NBA All-Star who has been chosen to the All-NBA Team three times (including two first-team choices) and has won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award in 2020–21 and 2021–22. He also plays for Serbia’s national team.
JJokić, nicknamed “the Joker,” was chosen by the Nuggets in the second round of the 2014 NBA draft. In 2016, he was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team.
During the 2018–19 NBA season, he earned his first All-Star and All-NBA First Team honors while leading the Nuggets to the Western Conference Semifinals.
Jokić was born in the Serbian town of Sombor. He grew up in a two-bedroom flat with his two brothers, his father, Branislav Jokić, and his mother, along with his grandmother. His father worked as an agricultural engineer.
Jokić grew up playing basketball with his two elder brothers, who were a decade older than him. Strahinja, the oldest brother, played basketball in Europe, while Nemanja, the second oldest, attended the University of Detroit Mercy.
