Joker’s kingdom: Nuggets icon Nikola Jokic balances stardom as ‘normal guy’ in Serbian hometown

It’s 8 a.m. on what is forecast to be another scorching-hot day in July, and basketball trainer Nebojsa Vagic is leading three European pros through drills at Hala Mostonga gym in Sombor. The training starts early since the air conditioning has been turned off during the summer to save money.

Vagic conducts drills to help the players move without the ball. Later, they do some shooting and Lazar Gagye, 18, drains several 3-pointers.

Morning basketball workout out at Hala Mostonga led by Nebojsa Vagic, the personal coach for Joker and his godfather. He has been regularly working out Joker in Sombor since before he first reported to the Nuggets in 2015. (Chris Tomasson, The Denver Gazette)

Chris Tomasson Chris.tomasson@gazette.com

Gagye, a Sombor native who plays guard, recently finished his first season with a pro team in the Serbian capital of Belgrade. He has dreams of one day playing in the NBA and said he has gained inspiration in reaching that goal by watching Sombor native Nikola Jokic become a three-time league MVP for the Nuggets.

“It’s good to see somebody from your city become an NBA MVP,” Gagye said. “He’s a great player. You have somebody to look up to.”

As he spoke, Gagye literally was looking up to Jokic. Above him on the wall of the gym was a huge mural that includes three photos of the 6-foot-11 Serbian star center and reads “MVP NBA 2020/21 Nikola Jokic.”

At Hala Mostonga, the gym where the Jokic family team K.K. Joker plays in Sombor. The big mural on the wall was put up after Joker won his first MVP in the 2020-21 season. It hasn’t been updated with his last two MVPs. (Chris Tomasson, The Denver Gazette)

Chris Tomasson chris.tomasson@gazette.com

The mural was put up after Jokic won his first MVP award in 2021. He since has added MVP trophies in 2022 and 2024 and a Finals MVP for leading the Nuggets to the NBA title in 2023.

“They need to update it,” Vagic, wearing a Nuggets T-shirt, joked about adding Jokic’s more recent awards to the mural.

Jokic, 29, has seen the mural plenty. When he is back in Sombor, he regularly works out at the gym with Vagic, his personal coach and godfather. It is home to KK Joker, a local club for which Jokic once played. The club then was called KK SO Kos before it was renamed in honor of the big man’s nickname. The team now plays in Serbia’s top basketball division. The president is Jokic’s father, Branislav.

Before joining Serbia’s Olympic team earlier this month, the nine-year NBA veteran worked out for a month at the gym with Vagic and conditioning coach Dusan Ciric.

On Sunday, Serbia opens Olympic play against Team USA in Lille, France, 140 miles north of Paris. You better believe most of the folks in Sombor, population 41,814, will be tuned in.

“The Olympics will be crazy,” Vagic said. “We can’t wait.”

***

Daily life stops in Sombor when Jokic is playing a big game. So does sleeping.

Many people are up in the middle of the night to watch Nuggets games in a city 8 hours ahead of Mountain Time. When Denver played in the 2023 NBA Finals, the games came on at 2:30 a.m. in Serbia.

That didn’t stop the watch parties for Games 1 and 5 in a series won 4-1 by the Nuggets over the Miami Heat. There were about 200 fans on hand at the Game 5 party, and longtime Sombor resident Srdjan Vlaskalic sent video of the event to be shown on ESPN.

“It was great,’’ said Vlaskalic, 42. “It was a big party. There was a lot of a beer. When the game ended, it was light outside.”

There were celebrations when Jokic was shown hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy. He is, by far, the most recognizable person to come from Sombor, which is 113 miles north of Belgrade and near the borders of Hungary and Croatia.

Images of Jokic can be seen all over the city. At grocery stores, there are cans stacked up of Joker, an energy drink made by Guarana and named after him.

At a local Western Union currency exchange booth, there are big pictures of Jokic on the side. At the tourist bureau in the city center, there is a life-size cutout of Jokic and T-shirts and magnets depicting him on sale.

“They sell like crazy,’’ said Natasha Vujakvica, manning the tourist office. “Sombor is so proud of him.”

Natasha Vujakvica, who works at the Sombor tourist bureau, poses with a life-sized cutout of Nikola Jokic. (Chris Tomasson, The Denver Gazette)

Chris Tomasson, The Denver Gazette

But the most impressive Jokic display can be found a mile away. At Dositej Obradovic, the elementary school Jokic once attended, there is a three-story mural of Jokic shown dribbling a basketball. It reads on the top, “Don’t be afraid to fail BIG,” and at the bottom has a Nike swoosh. The sneaker giant helped fund it.

An advertisement in Sombor for Western Union featuring Nikola Jokic. It’s on a foreign exchange booth. (Chris Tomasson, The Denver Gazette)

Chris Tomasson, The Denver Gazette

The mural overlooks a basketball court where Jokic played regularly when attending the school from the first through eighth grades. The court is in great shape, perhaps helped by Jokic’s donations to the school through the years.

***

This area of Sombor has become a tourist attraction. On a recent day in which the temperature reached the upper 90s, Stefan Bozic, a Toronto resident, was staring up at the mural.

Bozic is of Serbian descent and is a big Jokic fan — so devoted that he flew to Denver last December for a Nuggets game against Brooklyn and waved a Serbian flag. That got the attention of Jokic, who chatted with Bozic briefly after the game. He also posed for photos with Nemanja and Strahinja, Jokic’s two older brothers.

“I rented a car and I drove up two hours from Novi Sad,’’ said Bozic, who was in Serbia’s second-biggest city to visit relatives. “I wanted to see where Joker is from. It’s amazing being here and seeing (the mural). It’s surreal.”

Stefan Bozic, 28, is a Canadian of Serbian descent. He is a huge fan of Nikola Jokic and was visiting relatives in Novi Sad, a city 2 hours south of Sombor. He rented a car and drove up to Sombor, because he is a Joker fan. (Chris Tomasson, The Denver Gazette)

Chris Tomasson Chris.tomasson@gazette.com

Jokic was not in Sombor when The Denver Gazette visited due to having left in late June to begin training with the Olympic team in Belgrade. But there were several instances earlier this month when the team had a day off from practice and Jokic returned to Sombor to spend time with wife Natalija and their 2-year-old daughter, Ognjena.

“Two nights ago, he was right there at that booth in the restaurant,’’ said Marco Krdza, a cook at the Orijent 5 restaurant.

“The other day he was at the (city) pool, my neighbor told me,’’ said Dejan Rakic, a Sombor native who moved to Toronto in 2010 and was back visiting and has met Jokic on several occasions. “He was holding his daughter in his hands. Then he was playing hide-and-seek with some kids in the pool. That’s the kind of guy he is.”

Despite Jokic’s international stardom, there are plenty of stories told in town about his humility. He often is seen riding a bike around Sombor.

“Everybody knows him and when he’s here they say hi to him,” Vujakvica said. “People take pictures of him and he is so nice. He doesn’t act like he’s famous. He’ll stop to talk and say hi.”

The Sombor, Serbia, apartment building where Nikola Jokic lives when in town. (Chris Tomasson, The Denver Gazette)

Chris Tomasson, The Denver Gazette

Milos Kalmab, 11, was playing with a basketball on a Sombor sidewalk. He said he has met Jokic on two occasions, and he was gracious.

“I asked him for a picture and an autograph,’’ Kalmab said. “He was very nice.”

Often, though, folks in Sombor make a point of leaving Jokic alone.

“People in Sombor are not very aggressive because they know that he always is here and is often available,’’ said Vlaskalic, who long has known Jokic’s father and has known Jokic since he was young. “There are some times when he’s not in the mood (to give autographs or pose for pictures). But people in Sombor are not that aggressive and he has his own peace here when he goes to the swimming pool or to a local restaurant.”

Vlaskalic, an avid basketball fan who regularly wakes up early to watch Nuggets games on television, has become what he calls an “ambassador volunteer” in Sombor. He has spoken to a number of journalists over the years and was a guest on an Altitude Sports television show during the 2023 Finals.

Vlaskalic never misses a chance to extol the virtues of Sombor, a community founded in 1340, has a big town square and grandiose buildings more than 200 years old. Due to its many parks, the city has been called the third-greenest one in Europe.

“My city is the best city for life in the world,’’ Vlaskalic said. “I am lucky to have been born here. It’s a peaceful city with a rich history and it’s very green.”

***

Jokic always has spoken well of Sombor. In a now-famous interview on the court with ABC after the Nuggets won the NBA title, he said, “The job is done. We can go home now.”

Home was Jokic’s destination as soon as the victory parade was over. When in Sombor, he lives in an apartment and for the last several years has been building a lavish home near the center of town.

Three houses once stood on the lot. The hope is the home will be ready next year for Jokic to move in his wife, daughter and two brothers.

“It’s crazy,” Vagic said. “It’s like a fortress. It’s really nice and a really big house. It’s just amazing.”

When home in Sombor, one of Jokic’s favorite passions is harness racing. Jokic owns a number of horses, housed at Dream Catcher, the family stable run by his father. The horses compete in races throughout the summer, and Jokic prefers not to miss them.

Dreamcatcher, the harness horse racing facility that Nikola Jokic owns in Sombor, houses some of the horses owned by Jokic. (Chris Tomasson, The Denver Gazette)

Chris Tomasson, The Denver Gazette

“He loves Sombor,” Vagic said. “When he comes back from the Nuggets’ season in May or June, he doesn’t want to leave Sombor for any reason. He loves horse racing as much as anything. That’s his No. 1 topic. Whenever you see him, don’t ask him about basketball, ask him about horse racing.”

Vujakvica said whenever Jokic retires from basketball he is expected to return to Sombor and “ride his horses.”

Vagic said it was “hard” for Jokic to leave Sombor this summer to play for the Olympic team, but he recognizes it is “something special” to represent his country. Jokic, then 21, helped lead Serbia to a silver medal in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and he received a hero’s welcome when he returned to Sombor and addressed residents at a ceremony outside the grand city hall. Jokic chose not to compete in a qualifying tournament in 2021 for the Tokyo Olympics, and Serbia didn’t make it.

With Serbia back in the Olympics and Jokic the star of the team, there is optimism in Sombor.

“I think Serbia is going to win,’’ Kalmab said.

One resident was more realistic. In an exhibition game last week in Abu Dhabi, Serbia was walloped 105-79 by Team USA, the favorite for the gold medal.

“We can win a medal, yes, but I don’t know about gold,’’ said a man named Mirko, who didn’t want to give his last name while offering what is perhaps not a popular opinion in Sombor. “We don’t have a roster like America. We have six or seven (good players). That’s it.”

Helping Jokic get ready for the Olympics were Vagic and Ciric. They worked him out five days a week for 45-minute sessions from late May to late June.

“We did some individual drills and some shooting,’’ Vagic said. “We did some weight work. He’s in good shape.”

Vagic first saw Jokic play basketball when he was 12 and has been his personal coach since Jokic was preparing to enter the NBA with the Nuggets in 2015. Jokic was selected with the No. 41 pick in the second round of the 2014 draft and spent the 2014-15 season playing for KK Mega in Belgrade. He was MVP of the Adriatic League.

It was then determined Jokic was ready to join the NBA. And Vagic began working him out before he joined the Nuggets for the 2015 Las Vegas Summer League.

“He didn’t practice as hard as he does now,’’ Vagic said. “He would try to cut corners in certain ways. He was always super talented for passing and for shooting but we wanted to change his preparation.”

Then, Vagic worked with Jokic on his shooting form, toning his body with conditioning and weightlifting and his running.

“He used to run from one leg to another and we worked on getting him to run straight,” Vagic.

Vagic was confident Jokic would develop into a solid NBA player but never imagined he would become a three-time MVP.

“That’s like science fiction,’’ he said. “Nobody could tell. But he changed himself when he got to the Denver Nuggets and his career began to skyrocket.”

Magnets of Nikola Jokic on display at the tourist bureau in Sombor, Serbia. (Chris Tomasson, The Denver Gazette)

Chris Tomasson, The Denver Gazette

Also amazed at how far Jokic has come is Alex Brbaklic, a shooting guard who was KK Joker’s captain the past three seasons and will play next season for a Hungarian team. Brbaklic, one of the players working out this summer with Vagic, is 29 like Jokic and first played basketball with him when they were 6.

“He was good,” the 6-foot-4 Brbaklic said. “But it’s crazy how much he has improved. When he was a kid, you could see his talent but he got better every year.

“He wasn’t, at first, much taller than us. But when he was was 15 to 17 years old, he started to really grow. When he was MVP of the Adriatic League, you could tell he was going to be something really big. But nobody on this earth could tell that he was going to be MVP and the best player in the world.”

When Jokic is back in Sombor, he often visits with Brbaklic. He said the star center, who is on the books to earn $51.4 million in 2024-25, hasn’t changed during his rise to international stardom.

Nikola Jokic T-shirts for sale at the Sombor tourist bureau. (Chris Tomasson, The Denver Gazette)

Chris Tomasson, The Denver Gazette

“It’s crazy how normal he is,’’ Brbaklic said. “He’s not like some famous guy or some superstar. He just acts like a normal guy. It’s an honor to be his friend and to know him well.”

Brbaklic spoke after the 1-hour workout with Vagic while standing under the big mural of Jokic. The gym by that time was starting to heat up, and the plan was for Brbaklic, Gagye and Alexander Andric, a native of Switzerland who was the third player on hand, to return the next day for another workout.