Nikola Jokic put together a masterful performance for his former Serbian League coach Dejan Milojevic
The entire NBA community has been moving forward with a heavy heart since the tragic passing of Golden State Warriors assistant coach Dejan Milojevic earlier this week. For very good reason, multiple Golden State Warriors games have been postponed, but it’s not just those within the Dubs organization who have been greatly impacted by Milojevic’s untimely death.
Long before Milojevic joined the Golden State Warriors coaching staff, the former Serbian basketball star had a successful career coaching basketball in his home country. During an eight-year career as the head coach of Mega Basket of the Adriatic Basketball Association, Milojevic coached multiple players who would go on to play in the NBA, including Ivica Zubac, Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot, Goga Bitadze, Vasilije Micić, and yes, reigning NBA Finals MVP, Nikola Jokic.
Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets played their first game since Milojevic’s passing on Friday night at the Boston Celtics. Heading into the game, the Celtics held a perfect 20-0 record at home. After the game, thanks in large part to an MVP-caliber performance from the two-time league MVP, the Celtics are now 20-1 in Boston. After the game, Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone spoke about Nikola Jokic’s effort in a game in which he was certainly playing for “Decky.”
All these years after Dejan Milojevic last coached Nikola Jokic for Mega Baskets, where Jokic won the Adriatic League MVP in his final season in Europe, the two Serbians remained very close. Michael Malone even revealed that when the Nuggets got news of Milojevic’s hospitalization, he called Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who shared with Malone that Milojevic spoke about Jokic often and was very proud of Jokic’s development as a player and as a person (h/t Bennett Durando of the Denver Post). Surely, Decky would’ve been proud to see Jokic putting up a 34 point, 12 rebound, 9 assist performance against the team with the best record in the NBA.
It’s times like this where it becomes so abundantly clear what a strong brotherhood there is among individuals who have both played and coached in the NBA.
