Nikola Jokic: A Masterclass in Dominance
Nikola Jokic’s greatness is no longer a debate. It’s a weekly reminder.
Three MVPs, a championship, a style of play that bends the sport into his own rhythm – the Serbian center has turned a 12-year NBA journey into a masterclass in how to dominate without fitting any of the usual templates. He doesn’t explode past defenders. He doesn’t soar over them. He outthinks them, outmaneuvers them, and, most nights, outclasses them.
Those no-look passes that slice through traffic. The feathery touch on step-backs and hooks. The patient footwork with his back to the basket. For fans, watching him is not just entertainment; it’s a privilege.
And in the background of that rise, almost always out of the spotlight, stands Ognjen “Ogi” Stojakovic.
The coach who saw a superstar in the “chubby kid”
Stojakovic, a Denver Nuggets assistant and fellow Serbian, has been at Jokic’s side for the entire climb. Long before the trophies, long before the league adjusted its scouting lens toward Sombor, he saw something others didn’t.
“First thing when I saw him, in my mind, he was a mix of talent, and I always said it. I said Pau Gasol, Steve Nash, and Dirk Nowitzki when I saw him,” Stojakovic told Basketball Network.
That’s not a casual comparison. Those are three Hall of Fame pillars, each with a very different blueprint for greatness. But in Jokic, Stojakovic recognized pieces of all of them and, more importantly, a path to make that blend work.
He broke it down simply. Nash wasn’t fast, but he ran relentlessly. He wasn’t a high-flyer, but he scored from everywhere and passed with genius. Gasol was a big, skilled, do-everything presence. Nowitzki wasn’t an elite athlete, but he piled up points with impossible shots and immaculate skill.
“And then I’m proud that I recognize that. I’m proud that actually I had the right approach,” Stojakovic said.
At the time, Jokic was hardly the prototype of an NBA star. He was slow. He was unathletic by league standards. He didn’t look like a future MVP; he looked like a gamble. Stojakovic chose to see something else.
A guard’s mind in a giant’s frame
From today’s vantage point, the comparisons make perfect sense. You can see Nash in Jokic’s court vision and his audacious passing – the angles, the timing, the feel. You can see Nowitzki in the way he creates space, in the odd, off-balance jumpers that somehow keep dropping. You can see Gasol in the footwork, the touch, the way he reads the game from the post.
What you get when you put all of that into a 7-footer is something the league has rarely witnessed: a guard trapped in a big man’s body who can shoot, rebound, pass, dribble, post up, and run an offense at an elite level.
That combination has existed in flashes across the NBA’s 80-year history, but almost never in this particular configuration. Jokic doesn’t just do a bit of everything; he orchestrates everything. The ball finds him, and from there, the game bends to his decisions.
Turning “weaknesses” into weapons
Modern basketball worships speed and explosiveness. Vertical leap, lateral quickness, end-to-end burst – those are the measurables that usually drive draft boards and scouting reports.
Jokic climbed a different ladder.
Stojakovic recognized early that Denver had something unusual on its hands. He’d seen what Nash, Gasol, and Nowitzki did with their so-called limitations. None of them fit the ideal athletic mold, yet each turned supposed flaws into the foundation of a legendary career.
Jokic followed a similar path. He didn’t try to become something he wasn’t. With Stojakovic guiding him behind the scenes, he leaned into what he could be: the smartest player on the floor, the most technically sound, the one who always seemed two steps ahead.
Ogi knew talent alone wouldn’t carry Jokic to the top. So he went to work, piece by piece, until the holes in his game started to disappear. Footwork, angles, reads, counters in the post, decision-making as a primary playmaker – all sharpened, all refined.
The result is what we see now: a “hyper-talented kid,” as he once was, reshaped into a player destined for the Hall of Fame.
Jokic’s story is often told as a tale of an overlooked second-round pick who defied the odds. It’s also the story of a coach who saw a mix of Gasol, Nash, and Nowitzki in a young, unsculpted big man and had the conviction to build around that vision.
The rest of the league is still trying to figure out how to deal with what those two created.
