Nikola Jokic’s journey began with his two brothers, parents and grandmother in a two-bed apartment in northwest Serbia.
It came to an ecstatic climax in the early hours of Tuesday morning at the Ball Arena in Colorado as the six-feet 11-inch centre led the Denver Nuggets to their first-ever NBA Championship.
A title previously graced and dominated by the likes of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James is now in Jokic’s hands after he powered the Nuggets to a 94-89 win over the Miami Heat to win the best-of-seven series by four games to one.
Born in 1995 as the war in the Balkans was coming to an end, Jokic has seen a lot in his 28 years and has now scaled basketball’s Everest.
Jokic, an Olympic silver medallist at Rio in 2016, was named Most Valuable Player of the series but had thoughts afterwards only for the players who helped him achieve his sporting dream.
The player nicknamed The Joker said: “We’re not in it for ourselves, we’re in it for the guy next to us and that’s why this means even more.
“It was an amazing effort by the team. That is why basketball is a fun sport, it is a live thing, you cannot say this is going to happen, there are so many factors.”
Jokic had 28 points and 16 rebounds on the night as Denver won 94-89 and even though game five was far from a classic, a bit like Manchester City in Istanbul, he knew it was a case of getting over the line.
“It was ugly and we couldn’t make shots. But at the end we figured it out,” Jokic said after hugging all of his jubilant teammates and coaches and almost all of his dejected opponents. “I am just happy we won the game.”
His brothers - Nemanja and Strahinja - with whom he shared the cramped home in Serbia were both in the stands to witness their younger sibling crowned champion, as was wife Natalija.
She held their one-year-old daughter, Ognjena, in one arm and punched the air in delight with the other as the clock ran out and the celebrations began.
But when it comes to celebrating, Jokic is keen to swerve it and head back to Serbia. As a child, he raced horses and he owns horses back home, with a race coming up on Sunday. When told the club’s victory parade is set for tomorrow (THU), Jokic, who said before the finals he would buy a new racehorse if the Nuggets won, groaned and said: “Noooo! I need to go home. On Sunday I have my horse racing.”
