Nikola Jokić and Dejan Milojević’s Final Embrace: A Farewell in Basketball

Nikola Jokić will never forget the basket and his final encounter on the court with his mentor. They spoke on January 6, the day after Jokić’s Denver team played against Dejan’s Golden State, where Jokić was the hero. Having completed his junior career under Milojević’s leadership at Mega before starting his senior career 12 years ago, everyone watched as the two warmly bid farewell after the game. Unfortunately, it turned out to be one of their last, if not their final hug. “I didn’t see the expression on his face, but I know that in my life, I have played and lost a small number of such games. You can tell when the ball starts rolling downhill, it didn’t have a good trajectory, it bounced off the rim, but when it starts going downhill, everything goes downhill. That has rarely happened to me in life,” Jokić said, laughing during his conversation with Aca Stojanović. They had worked together at Mega from 2012 to 2015, when Jokić, as the MVP of the ABA league, went to Denver and became the league’s best player. As humble as Milojević is, his contributions to this achievement are enormous, and his relationship with Jokić has always been and remains special.