Go on YouTube and watch Jokic rookie year highlights. Mike ain’t kidding, he has been throwing insane passes since day 1.
He’s got a ONE HOUR rookie highlight reel, and it’s better than many players career reels.
Turns out EG was actually Mike Miller.
Completely forgot he ended up on the Nuggets
mike miller pumpkin head ass callin people ugly
The first thing I always remember about Mike Miller is when he played a few plays with a dangling, broken arm
Mike Miller was also the first person to call him Joker
Sounds like he’s just yapping but I believe it
What’s the running count of people Jokic got paid?
Bruce Brown, KCP, ?
Didn’t hear a word he said with how that earring was dangling around
Man why he called him ugly like that
Lmao. I didn’t even know Mike Miller played for the nuggets
KCP is a victim of the Jokic effect.
Mike “buddy heild” miller
The entire Mike Miller interview with PMT was pretty good. I’d recommend giving it a listen.
Mike Miller returning to the Nuggets next season confirmed
High IQ player from the get go
The best part of this entire video is the fact that in the first image of Joker, he has a cut on his arm 😂😂😂 because of course. Im convinced my dude has had alternating random cuts on his arms since birth
Mike knows ball. He’s Paolos agent, and when everyone was clamoring about Jabari and Chet in the draft and Paolo being 3rd, he called the Magic and said that they have to draft him cause “I don’t miss on talent”
There’s a [podcast](https://youtu.be/GFXpIeKSR1Q?t=4344) with Serbian former big man Novica Veličković who played with Jokic at MEGA in Belgrade who talks about how high IQ Nikola was even at 18-19, he understood plays & drills immediately which impressed veteran players on the team. The podcast is in Serbian, I don’t know if there’s subtitles in English though.
**Novica Veličković**:
The first thing that came to mind – such a polite, refined kid. When I first saw him, you could tell right away he was kind and well-mannered. He came to practice, and the image in my head is this: six or seven cones set up, and our coach [Deki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dejan_Milojevi%C4%87) says, “through the legs, behind the back, rolling, crossover, right, left, stop.” I couldn’t do that combo four times in a row even if I tried.
But Jokić? Bam, bam, bam – flawless. He soaks up information like a sponge. From the very beginning of training, you could see he had an instinct for the game. That’s just the kind of player he is. He sees the floor better than anyone. At 17 or 18, he trained like someone with ten professional seasons behind him. He connected everything on the court – passes, positioning, staying open for threes – you saw all that even then.
No one knew back then he’d become an NBA MVP, but you could tell he was special. A big part of it was not limiting him as a player. But the challenge was his body – it couldn’t keep up with his basketball brain. He weighed around 112–115 kilos, massive even as a teenager. Hit him in the chest, he wouldn’t budge. He never shied away from contact.
What’s truly fascinating is his right hand. He’d grab a rebound one-handed and launch a fast break instantly. There’s no defense for that. If you’d paired him with Jan Vesely in Partizan back then, Jan would’ve scored 50 just from Jokić’s outlet passes. The ball just sticks to his hand. His touch on floaters and passes – unbelievable.
Rale once told me – they were working on a low-post move. Deki demonstrates something, and Jokić immediately replicates it. I try to defend him – he nutmegs me, spins, and catches the ball one-handed… from the other side of the backboard! The kids watching were in shock, like, “I’m not going against him!”
And then he did the same move to me, even though I *knew* it was coming. I just stood there – didn’t even see the ball. Everyone burst out laughing, my pride took a hit. But it was all in good fun. That ease with which he plays – it’s something special. And then to top it off, he throws a full-court pass off the backboard – [Rale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratko_Varda) (Pistons legend) started chasing him around the court laughing. Wild.
He was on the ringer pod 8 years ago when he joined Denver and was asked who’s the all-nba guy in the future in the team and he said Jokic
Taco Bell rookie 😂😂😂
Mike miller pretty on point with the way other kids play, stating they play too fast and make too many mistakes. Seems to echo AAU basketball and its flaws in developing players nowadays
MVP
Mike Miller!? Wow!
Facts. All my homies love Mike Miller. The anti-Richard Jefferson
OG white boy!
I remember rookie jokic cooking the Raptors one game and being pissed we couldn’t guard some random ass Serbian 2nd rounder.
Little did I know
Crazy that I saw him play high school basketball when I was little.
He nailed it. Bruce Brown and KCP left, got paid, and haven’t produced like they did in Denver. He makes everyone around him better.
Lifelong Nuggets fan… I knew instantly Joker was going to be one of the best to ever play for the team.
When he started to get minutes I would email my boss his stat lines.
At the time I worked for a local ticket broker and told him to buy a shit load more Nuggets season tickets.
I told him this kid will take the Nuggets to the finals someday and I’d never seen any player like him.
I just never anticipated he would be one of the best players literally EVER.
Extremely casual NBA fan here. What does “Taco Bell Rookie” mean?
Mfs be lying, talking about I thought he was the best player in the world in his first yr. Mike miller says anything
Super young Jokic almost beat Durant and company in the group stage in Rio 2016. USA had some big leads something like +20 and than he came in from the bench and scored 25. The game ended with missed 3 from Bogdanovic for OT.
i need receipts from this take.
Joker is still ugly and fat as am I lmao….buuuuut I’m not a fuckin 🐐!
I just want a couple competent, consistent (looking at you Jamal) players that joker doesn’t have to make better on his own
38 comments
Go on YouTube and watch Jokic rookie year highlights. Mike ain’t kidding, he has been throwing insane passes since day 1.
He’s got a ONE HOUR rookie highlight reel, and it’s better than many players career reels.
Turns out EG was actually Mike Miller.
Completely forgot he ended up on the Nuggets
mike miller pumpkin head ass callin people ugly
The first thing I always remember about Mike Miller is when he played a few plays with a dangling, broken arm
Mike Miller was also the first person to call him Joker
Sounds like he’s just yapping but I believe it
What’s the running count of people Jokic got paid?
Bruce Brown, KCP, ?
Didn’t hear a word he said with how that earring was dangling around
Man why he called him ugly like that
Lmao. I didn’t even know Mike Miller played for the nuggets
KCP is a victim of the Jokic effect.
Mike “buddy heild” miller
The entire Mike Miller interview with PMT was pretty good. I’d recommend giving it a listen.
Mike Miller returning to the Nuggets next season confirmed
High IQ player from the get go
The best part of this entire video is the fact that in the first image of Joker, he has a cut on his arm 😂😂😂 because of course. Im convinced my dude has had alternating random cuts on his arms since birth
Mike knows ball. He’s Paolos agent, and when everyone was clamoring about Jabari and Chet in the draft and Paolo being 3rd, he called the Magic and said that they have to draft him cause “I don’t miss on talent”
There’s a [podcast](https://youtu.be/GFXpIeKSR1Q?t=4344) with Serbian former big man Novica Veličković who played with Jokic at MEGA in Belgrade who talks about how high IQ Nikola was even at 18-19, he understood plays & drills immediately which impressed veteran players on the team. The podcast is in Serbian, I don’t know if there’s subtitles in English though.
Edit: Used AI to translate the part about Jokic:
**Question (**by Nets legend [Mile Ilic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile_Ili%C4%87)): “Do you remember your first encounter with Jokić? What was your impression?”
**Novica Veličković**:
The first thing that came to mind – such a polite, refined kid. When I first saw him, you could tell right away he was kind and well-mannered. He came to practice, and the image in my head is this: six or seven cones set up, and our coach [Deki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dejan_Milojevi%C4%87) says, “through the legs, behind the back, rolling, crossover, right, left, stop.” I couldn’t do that combo four times in a row even if I tried.
But Jokić? Bam, bam, bam – flawless. He soaks up information like a sponge. From the very beginning of training, you could see he had an instinct for the game. That’s just the kind of player he is. He sees the floor better than anyone. At 17 or 18, he trained like someone with ten professional seasons behind him. He connected everything on the court – passes, positioning, staying open for threes – you saw all that even then.
No one knew back then he’d become an NBA MVP, but you could tell he was special. A big part of it was not limiting him as a player. But the challenge was his body – it couldn’t keep up with his basketball brain. He weighed around 112–115 kilos, massive even as a teenager. Hit him in the chest, he wouldn’t budge. He never shied away from contact.
What’s truly fascinating is his right hand. He’d grab a rebound one-handed and launch a fast break instantly. There’s no defense for that. If you’d paired him with Jan Vesely in Partizan back then, Jan would’ve scored 50 just from Jokić’s outlet passes. The ball just sticks to his hand. His touch on floaters and passes – unbelievable.
Rale once told me – they were working on a low-post move. Deki demonstrates something, and Jokić immediately replicates it. I try to defend him – he nutmegs me, spins, and catches the ball one-handed… from the other side of the backboard! The kids watching were in shock, like, “I’m not going against him!”
And then he did the same move to me, even though I *knew* it was coming. I just stood there – didn’t even see the ball. Everyone burst out laughing, my pride took a hit. But it was all in good fun. That ease with which he plays – it’s something special. And then to top it off, he throws a full-court pass off the backboard – [Rale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratko_Varda) (Pistons legend) started chasing him around the court laughing. Wild.
He was on the ringer pod 8 years ago when he joined Denver and was asked who’s the all-nba guy in the future in the team and he said Jokic
Taco Bell rookie 😂😂😂
Mike miller pretty on point with the way other kids play, stating they play too fast and make too many mistakes. Seems to echo AAU basketball and its flaws in developing players nowadays
MVP
Mike Miller!? Wow!
Facts. All my homies love Mike Miller. The anti-Richard Jefferson
OG white boy!
I remember rookie jokic cooking the Raptors one game and being pissed we couldn’t guard some random ass Serbian 2nd rounder.
Little did I know
Crazy that I saw him play high school basketball when I was little.
He nailed it. Bruce Brown and KCP left, got paid, and haven’t produced like they did in Denver. He makes everyone around him better.
Lifelong Nuggets fan… I knew instantly Joker was going to be one of the best to ever play for the team.
When he started to get minutes I would email my boss his stat lines.
At the time I worked for a local ticket broker and told him to buy a shit load more Nuggets season tickets.
I told him this kid will take the Nuggets to the finals someday and I’d never seen any player like him.
I just never anticipated he would be one of the best players literally EVER.
Extremely casual NBA fan here. What does “Taco Bell Rookie” mean?
Mfs be lying, talking about I thought he was the best player in the world in his first yr. Mike miller says anything
Super young Jokic almost beat Durant and company in the group stage in Rio 2016. USA had some big leads something like +20 and than he came in from the bench and scored 25. The game ended with missed 3 from Bogdanovic for OT.
i need receipts from this take.
Joker is still ugly and fat as am I lmao….buuuuut I’m not a fuckin 🐐!
I just want a couple competent, consistent (looking at you Jamal) players that joker doesn’t have to make better on his own
[“Like my good friend Mike Miller told me ‘just let it fly and enjoy the moment’ “](https://youtu.be/teLCw97QNgs?feature=shared)- Joker
Playing with Jokic must be a freaking dream. Just cut and move around and you’ll get perfect passes for easy shots