DENVER — As the Nuggets celebrate their first-ever NBA championship, perhaps there’s no better time to look back on a photo of superstar Nikola Jokic from 23 years ago.
The photo shows a 5-year-old Jokic in his hometown of Sombor, Serbia. His agent, Misko Raznatovic, shared it last summer to celebrate the landmark $272 million contract extension Jokic signed with Denver.
The remarkable part of the photo is the blue Denver Nuggets sweatshirt the young Jokic is wearing.
Raznatovic wrote in an Instagram post that Jokic had gotten the sweatshirt as an unlikely present.
“Chances of a kid from a small Serbian town having a sweatshirt from a lesser known American team back in 2000 were minimal,” he wrote. “Chances of anyone knowing about the Nuggets in a small Serbian town were next to nothing.”
The Nuggets would later share a photo of Jokic holding the photo of his younger self with the caption, “Born to be a Nugget.”
Born to be a Nugget
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) July 9, 2022
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2000 was a pedestrian year for the Nuggets on the court, but what would become a monumental one off of it.
They wrapped up a 35-47 record in the 1999-2000 season, missing the playoffs for the fifth consecutive year. But 2000 was also the year the deal closed for Stan Kroenke to buy the Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche and the Pepsi Center, which is now Ball Arena. Kroenke would go on to bring the franchise its first stable ownership in decades, and, of course, still owns the team in 2023.
More coverage of your 2023 World Champion Denver Nuggets:
- Nuggets championship parade set for Thursday: Here's the schedule, route and more
- Nikola Jokic named NBA Finals MVP
- The Nuggets are the first Western Conference team not from California or Texas to win an NBA title since the 1979 Seattle Supersonics
- Nuggets win first title with win in Game 5 slugfest vs. Heat
- Photos: Nuggets win first NBA Championship
- Watch Nikola Jokic pour a beer on Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in the middle of an interview after Finals win