What The Hell Happened To Nikola Jokic In The One Month Since FIBA?

I’m sorry, what the hell happened to Nikola Jokic? I know he’s always been husky, that’s one of the more impressive parts of his MVP type dominance because he has the body type of you averaged washed men’s league big man. But this photo is from the other day at the Nuggets Media Day and Jokic looks no fewer than 400 pounds. This is strange to me because just LAST MONTH when he was playing in FIBA he looked like this

Maybe it’s the angle? There’s no way someone could put on that much weight while also preparing for the regular season in like a month’s time. I went through and looked at some of his media day photos and now I’m not so sure

That’s one thicc MVP candidate. But then I thought to myself well, maybe he looked just like this last training camp and it wasn’t an issue seeing as how Jokic had another dominant season. So I went back and looked at last year’s media day photos and well

I feel like he may have been in better shape. I’m not saying this should be a huge concern because chances are he’ll just play his way into shape during training camp/preseason, but I admit I gasped when I saw that photo of him from yesterday. If you’ve played any form of competitive basketball though, you’ve been in this position before. Your coach tried to give you all a summer conditioning program that you 100% didn’t do until the first few weeks before the season started. Then on the first day you barely pass the conditioning test and you eventually play your way into shape. For me personally, I may have been the slowest on the planet when it came to running suicides, but you get me in a game and I could play forever. Fuck sprinting, it’s all about being in game shape and I feel like Jokic can relate to that. Why work out when you’ve proven you can dominate even if you’re a little puffy.

I just need to know what Jokic did from the moment Serbia got eliminated from FIBA until the open of camp. It’s almost like he ate his feelings about being a FIBA favorite and then finishing like 5th. I’m sure Nuggets fans are used to this version of Jokic by now, but the images are a little shocking. The good news is deep down you know no matter what sort of condition Jokic is in he’s still going to do shit like this

and you may have forgotten but this team is also adding a healthy Michael Porter Jr who if he can stay on the court could be an absolute beast

All I know is I love chubby Jokic because he gives out of shape basketball players everywhere a sliver of hope that they can still get it done. I don’t really understand how some guys like James Johnson in MIA fail their conditioning test and look a whole lot more in shape than Jokic does here, but who knows maybe it’s some sort of Serbian trick or something. Either way, thicc Jokic is coming for that MVP whether he’s in shape or not.