DENVER – It's not hard to tell how much home means to Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic.
Jokic, not typically one to accept praise, was visibly pleased to be fielding a question in his native Serbian after his magnificent Game 3 performance.
The question came from Aleksandar Zigic, a U.S. Correspondent for RTS Radio Television of Serbia. As soon as he introduced himself, a smile crawled across Jokic's face and he nodded his head in enjoyment.
That's noteworthy, given a tepid response from Jokic moments earlier to a question about his historic 32-point, 21-rebound, 10-assist outing Wednesday night: "I don't care [...] it's just a stat."
Zigic opened by saying many people in Jokic's homeland were up all night – Game 3 ended around 5 a.m. in Jokic's hometown of Sombor – watching the game. He followed with a question in Serbian.
We enlisted the help of a native Serbian speaker – who Denver7 recently featured in this story about Jokic's global hero status– to translate what followed:
ZIGIC: "Nikola, first of all I wanted to congratulate you on this new historical win. Also what do you have to say about this first, very important win on the road here in Miami? [A psychological] and sports win for Nuggets?"
JOKIC: "Yes I too have gotten a lot of messages (from Serbia) that everyone was wide awake watching the game, and of course I wanted to thank them for support for that. As far as the game goes it was a very important win for us (Nuggets) to come back from a loss in Denver. We had control of the game from the moment we took the lead and never let up. We had bench players who played great and they are the reason for tonight's win."
Among the bench players Jokic referenced was Christian Braun, the Nuggets rookie who scored 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting in 19 energizing minutes Wednesday night.
Watch the exchange – and Jokic's joy at the taste of home – in the video player above.
Denver Nuggets
