Nikola Jokic is an NBA champion for the first time in his career, delivering one of the great playoffs in NBA history en route to a Finals MVP and Denver’s first-ever NBA championship.
However, after the game, Jokic’s celebration was quite low-key. He was clearly happy to have won the title, but it seemed as much relief that the season was over as jubilation at being a champion. In his walk-in interview, he answered Lisa Salters’ question about what it feels like to be a champion “the job is done, we can go home now.”
He apparently wasn’t kidding about his plans to immediately return to Serbia, where he’s spending his offseason with his horses, family and friends (I believe in that order). In his post-match podium interview, Jokic was told that the Nuggets championship parade won’t take place until Thursday and he looked like a man who just found out he has to change some non-refundable travel plans. “No, I have to go home. ”
It’s the face of a man who spent his whole weekend telling himself that Monday was his last day at work for the whole summer if he got the job done, only to learn after taking some stuff that he couldn’t leave until Friday. The reason? You guessed it, his horse races on Sundays.
Adding to Jokic’s tough night of revelations on the podium, he was trying to see if Novak Djokovic texted him congratulating him, only to see his phone explode and throw him aside in disgust.
Jokic checks his phone to see if Novak Djokovic texted him, scrolls for a few seconds
“oh shit”
“How many texts do you have”
Jokic: “a lot, I’ll turn off the phone” pic.twitter.com/Ic4AaDnNtw— CJ Fogler’s account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) June 13, 2023
Jokic’s post-match celebration didn’t look gloomy as he still had to work or answer a bunch of texts as he tackled Jamal Murray in the training hall pool, l ‘m looking very happy about it all.