{"id":81160,"date":"2025-08-20T00:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T00:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/81160\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T00:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T00:25:10","slug":"nba-great-nuggets-nikola-jokic-dont-give-a-f-about-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/81160\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA great: Nuggets\u2019 Nikola Joki\u0107 \u2018don\u2019t give a f&#8212;\u2019 about basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"MEKQBLHLBBFDHM67YAL52XXJH4\">Nikola Joki\u0107 is considered one of the best players in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/sports\/2025\/08\/from-nba-to-ai-mark-cuban-predicts-worlds-1st-trillionaire.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/sports\/2025\/08\/from-nba-to-ai-mark-cuban-predicts-worlds-1st-trillionaire.html\">NBA<\/a>, and possibly the greatest draft steal in NBA history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"YXSRFNHWNBGPBEUTAYMYZCZNKA\">A three-time NBA MVP, Joki\u0107 is a seven-time All-Star who\u2019s won a championship and Finals MVP. Joki\u0107 also led the Serbian national team to a silver Olympic medal in 2016 and a bronze in Paris <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/sports\/2024\/07\/binge-drinking-blues-russian-spy-caught-after-outing-own-plot-to-wreak-havoc-on-paris-olympics.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/sports\/2024\/07\/binge-drinking-blues-russian-spy-caught-after-outing-own-plot-to-wreak-havoc-on-paris-olympics.html\">last summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"VWQZBDPQNBFERITD67G2R4PF74\">That said, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/knicks\/2020\/02\/nba-rumors-demarcus-cousins-could-still-have-a-future-with-the-lakers-despite-being-waived.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/knicks\/2020\/02\/nba-rumors-demarcus-cousins-could-still-have-a-future-with-the-lakers-despite-being-waived.html\">DeMarcus Cousins<\/a>, a dominant NBA center in his own right, Jokic \u201cdon\u2019t give a f&#8211;k about\u201d basketball.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"MQL5QYKHFJEFDIIJPMBC2Q7PO4\">\u201cIf you ever get a chance to just hold a conversation with him and he tells you a little bit about himself, he\u2019ll let you know off rip, he really don\u2019t give a f&#8211;k about this s&#8211;t,\u201d Cousins told the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Fullcourtpass\/status\/1950923442439495881?s=19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Fullcourtpass\/status\/1950923442439495881?s=19\">\u2018Straight Game Podcast\u2019<\/a> last month. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t care at all. This is like his second or third favorite thing to do, maybe third or fourth. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"GZRXOPM67RDSDBAMF54BCQIJ7A\">\u201cMost games when he\u2019s dropping these crazy stats, he probably doesn\u2019t even want to be there, and that\u2019s the scary part about all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"LRB66RS2UNGIZENPWQPZFSHSSU\">Like Joki\u0107, Cousins was once an elite playmaker who used his large frame and skills to dominate games. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"W5UISZEHNJHGJBXO6GRG3PMTOQ\">Cousins joined the Denver Nuggets and Joki\u0107 during the 2021-22 NBA season after being traded from the Milwaukee Bucks. He played in 31 games for the Nuggets, averaging 8.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"7QH46KA56JH6HPRKM6YAPCN6R4\">\u201cWhen I was in Denver, our lockers were right next to each other,\u201d Cousins said. \u201c&#8230; He was like, \u2018You know, Cous, I honestly think I might retire after this contract.\u2019 &#8230; He was like, \u2018Cous, I just want to lay out in my valley with my horses.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"OMXA6GLVBNBPXEJ42KKGATTJEE\">\u201cI was like, \u2018Man, you out your (expletive) mind.\u2019 I said, \u2018Sign the contract and just get fat at worst, but don\u2019t pass up on the $300 million!\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"E5ZCGJPCHNFZFHBNSC7RLOTAH4\">Jokic was picked 41st overall by the Nuggets in the second round of the 2014 NBA Draft. The announcement was <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Adam_Mares\/status\/1893375701895561553\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Adam_Mares\/status\/1893375701895561553?\">famously overshadowed by a Taco Bell commercial<\/a> unveiling the Quesarito.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"WYM3BAZ3LZBJPOJLJULL22PPOM\">Todderick Hunt covers Sports and Culture and Recruiting. Have a story idea or a tip? He can be reached at<a href=\"https:\/\/e.advance.net\/owa\/redir.aspx?C=X-d8dJbsQE-XBSUyWuG0utf_NWOvitEIXZeZBN2tUuIeot0bomxdCWI1cD0v4qkm-SRvs_XG6PQ.&amp;URL=mailto:%20thunt@nj.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">thunt@njadvancemedia.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.advancelocal.com\/advancelocalUserAgreement\/user-agreement.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.advancelocal.com\/advancelocalUserAgreement\/privacy-policy.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nikola Joki\u0107 is considered one of the best players in the NBA, and possibly the greatest draft steal&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-81160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}