Nikola Jokic Casually Made Olympic History While Also Carrying Serbia To The Largest Margin Of Victory They've Ever Had
After Team USA waxed Serbia in their Olympic opener, all eyes were on their second matchup against Puerto Rico. While nobody expects them to win Group C (Team USA's group), Serbia is largely considered a medal-caliber team so finishing top 2 in their group is rather important. Not only did they achieve the much-needed win, but it also happened to be the largest margin of victory in Team Serbia history. Pretty good!
As you can imagine, there was a main reason for this blowout, and to no surprise, it all starts and ends with Nikola Jokic
An impressive performance no doubt against a frontcourt that obviously does not have the size or talent to shut down the best player on the planet, hell even the best players in the world can't really do that. But aside from the impressive near triple-double, it just so happens that Jokic also made Olympic history
Mind you, Jokic sat the entire 4th quarter and a teammate smoked what should have been his 10th assist before he came out.
What's probably the greatest compliment you could give Jokic is that seeing a tweet like that is the least surprising thing of all time. Of course Nikola Jokic did something historic on the basketball court. It is another day that ends in "Y" after all. As impressive as this performance was, part of me still thinks this aspect of Jokic's Olympics so far is even more noteworthy
As we saw the other day, Team USA had no answer for Jokic either. Embiid, AD, Bam, none of it mattered which is funny considering playing 3 centers was Steve Kerr's big brain idea for rotations in the opener. In reality, it was essentially just like every other Nuggets game. When Jokic is on the floor, his team is elite and can compete with anyone on the globe. When he sits, it's a disaster. It cost the Nuggets another potential title, and it already cost Serbia in the Olympics.
Aside from looking like he's already in tremendous shape, I don't think we should overlook Goatee Jokic. These are the small things around the margins that can really take an already really good NBA player to another level. We all witnessed what Derrick White going bald did for his basketball career, so why can't the same be true for Goatee Jokic? If I'm a Nuggets fan I am praying he keeps it during the season and for the playoffs, because after blowing a 20 point lead in Game 7 on their home floor with Jokic running out of gas down the stretch, that might be just the thing that gets them back into contention.
Just keep it in the back of your mind as we get closer to October.