The Denver Nuggets are in the deepest part of the offseason. No free agent signings, no trades, no summer league games, just a nice break from basketball for the players to go get some time away from competition and relax before the grind of the 2025-26 season gets underway.
Not for Nikola Jokic — sort of.
He’s still competing, but not with a basketball in his hands. Instead, he’s at the track in Europe, supporting his horses compete in their races, something that NBA fans joke that he enjoys more than competing for championships with the Nuggets. Over the weekend, he was back at his home away from home, and was brought to tears by one of his horses achieving victory.
🃏 Nikola Jokić u suzama nakon pobede na čuvenoj Dužijanci u Subotici! pic.twitter.com/2gOWM9YZj8
— Arena Sport TV (@arenasport_tv) July 27, 2025
The joy. The emotion. The video perfectly encapsulates who Jokic is as a person, spending his offseason doing things he loves instead of putting podcast equipment in front of him like many other NBA players do.
“I experienced all my great victories and all my great defeats in this sport,” Jokic said after the race.
The NBA world was loving his reaction, especially when they compared it to his down-to-Earth reaction when the Nuggets won the championship back in 2023 and he walked away with the Finals MVP trophy after a historic playoff run.
Jokic celebrating an NBA Championship vs his horse winning a race 😭 pic.twitter.com/b1m5mvEdrw
— BricksCenter (@BricksCenter) July 27, 2025
That’s why Nuggets Nation loves their superstar. Truly a one-of-a-kind guy in the best way possible.
This victory on the horse track is another checked box for Jokic as he continues one of the best summers he’s had as a Nugget. He went on his annual rafting trip back in June, just wrapped up a tour in China with 361 Degrees in which he showed he has the fanbase to be the face of the NBA, and has spent countless hours at the track supporting his horses.
Next up on the list? The EuroBasket tournament with Serbia, set to kick off at the end of August, which Jokic is expected to play in. He had arguably the best individual season of his career after he spent his summer playing with Serbia in the Olympics, so this should be a good sign for Nuggets fans looking for another outstanding season from Jokic.
Don’t worry, just because he’s overseas celebrating his horses doesn’t mean he hasn’t taken note of what the Nuggets’ front office has done to beef up the roster around him. After he said that the team didn’t have the depth to compete with the Oklahoma City’s and the Indiana’s of the league after Denver lost in Game 7 of the second round for the second straight season, the new duo of Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace did everything in their power to set the Nuggets up for success next season with the additions of Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., Cam Johnson and Jonas Valanciunas.
