![\"Nikola](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Nikola-Jokic-Serbia.jpg\")
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Nikola Jokic and Serbia suffered an upset defeat at the Round of 16 of the 2025 EuroBasket.<\/p>\n
Three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic<\/a> represented Serbia at the 2025 EuroBasket this summer. The Eagles were one of the favorites to win the FIBA tournament, but they suffered a shocking exit in the Round of 16 against Lauri Markkanen<\/a> and Finland.<\/p>\n Speaking to Telegraf<\/a> to talk about the defeat, former NBA player Darko Milicic was critical of Jokic\u2019s failure to lift Serbia to EuroBasket glory. Milicic pointed out the lack of leadership following the injury to team captain Bogdan Bogdanovic<\/a>, who suffered a torn hamstring in their second group game against Portugal.<\/p>\n \u201cI respect and appreciate a lot and hats off to everything Nikola Jokic does,\u201d Milicic said on September 7. \u201cBut in general, I said that we can\u2019t do without Bogdan Bogdanovic, and we can do without Jokic. That\u2019s how it turned out now. We won silver at the World Championship. Of course, I\u2019m not talking about tennis, but about basketball, which is a team sport, and everyone did it together with Bogdan Bogdanovic. Unfortunately, Bogdan is the one who carries a lot, not only in basketball, but also in leadership. Obviously, he had great experience in our league, the EuroLeague, but also in the NBA.\u201d<\/p>\n Jokic still led Serbia to a 4-1 record in the group stage. He had 33 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals in The Eagles\u2019 92-86<\/a> loss to Finland in the Round of 16.<\/p>\n Defense was the Problem for Nikola Jokic and Serbia<\/p>\n In the same interview with Telegraf, Darko Milicic was critical of Serbia\u2019s overall defense against Finland. Milicic didn\u2019t single out a player, but he wasn\u2019t happy with the way those in the NBA are bringing in their so-called \u201cdefense\u201d to the national team.<\/p>\n \u201cDefense played a big factor in this EuroBasket,\u201d Milicic said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t play it as expected, which was due to injuries that required a lack of rotation, but also some other things. We have several players in the NBA league, all credit to them for what they do there, but they play a \u2018you-to-me, me-to-you\u2019 basketball, which is more and more present. You get 30 points for nothing if the opponent on the other side will score 30, then you are at zero. We lacked a stronger defense, but what\u2019s there is? Now, we can\u2019t turn back time.\u201d<\/p>\n Milicic was the second overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft right, after LeBron James<\/a> and before legends like Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. He\u2019s considered by experts and fans as one of the biggest draft busts in league history, which he\u2019s not shying away from based on his interview with ESPN<\/a> back in 2020.<\/p>\n Nikola Jokic has 2 Olympic Medals with Serbia<\/p>\n While Nikola Jokic\u2019s legacy is secured in both the NBA and internationally, he\u2019s still missing a EuroBasket and FIBA World Cup medal. He wasn\u2019t a part of the 2017 team that won silver at the EuroBasket and the 2023 team that finished runner-up to Germany in the World Cup.<\/p>\n Jokic does have two Olympic medals, a silver in 2016 and a bronze in 2024. Bogdan Bogdanovic has a more decorated international career for Serbia, with two Olympic medals, two EuroBasket silver medals and one World Cup silver medal.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, \u201cThe Joker\u201d gets some time to rest before returning to the United States for the start of training camp with the Denver Nuggets<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJuan Paolo David<\/a> Juan Paolo David is a sports journalist covering basketball for Heavy. He has a decade of experience writing about the NBA and WWE. He’s currently based in the Philippines. More about Juan Paolo David<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Nuggets\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Nikola Jokic and Serbia suffered an upset defeat at the Round of 16 of the 2025 EuroBasket.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-144196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}