AN HOUR BEFORENikola Jokic.Game 4 of the 2023 Western Conference finals tipped off at Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles, Ognjen Stojaković kept his eyes trained on
Stojaković, the Denver Nuggets’ director of development and an assistant coach, stood beyond the 3-point arc, donning black shorts and a long-sleeved gray Nuggets T-shirt on this Monday evening in late May. He fed passes to the team’s all-everything center, who is going through a series of warmup drills against 7-footer Boniface N’Dong, a retired Senegalese center who is now a Nuggets player development coach.
Jokic backed N’Dong down in the post, shooting one-handed floaters over him. He shot midrange turnaround jumpers over him. He jab-stepped and pump faked, delivering a flurry of methodical footwork pivots and high-arching shots that splash the net.
A crowd gathered around half court to watch the show. From the bench, Nuggets staff and players laughed and smiled. “He’s too little, Jok!” shouted Nuggets backup center DeAndre Jordan. Stojaković, standing near the 3-point arc, grinned and kept firing passes to Jokic, admiring the fellow Serbian, whom he first saw about a decade ago, when Jokic was 17 and playing for Mega Basket of the Adriatic League.
“He was a package of Marc Gasol and Dirk Nowitzki,” Stojaković said, referencing two of the most skilled European big men to ever reach the NBA.
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