Motivational Story - Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets / NBA)




Greetings! This piece is themed around “anything is possible” when pursuing your Dream! Some players are honed in at such a young age and others find their true passion later on.

Take Nikola Jokic from the NBA Denver Nuggets. Growing up in Serbia, a country that borders Croatia and Hungary, it was at the age of 15 when he first saw Michael Jordan highlight videos on YouTube. The NBA or that he could make a career in basketball was never on his radar before that even though he was 7-feet tall at the time?

At age 18, the conditioning coach for the Junior team Jokic was trying out for did not even allow him to practice for the first 15 days. They said he was in such bad physical shape and that he couldn‘t do one single pushup. They worried he would have injured himself. At the time, he was consuming almost a Gallon a Day of Coca-Cola which was the equivalent of eating 62 teaspoons of sugar or digesting 1,100 calories!

Jokic’s story is a great example that it is totally possible even if nobody is labeling you with 4 or 5-Stars or the various recruiting sites are not talking you up on social media … That you maybe play for a small junior team and not a national travel team … That you don‘t have an athletic build or your publicly called out as being “obese” … That you can still make it to the top level in your sport one day … and even “Dominate It!”

Know that Jokic didn't become the best passing big man in the NBA by accident? It was the lessons he was taught called “positionless basketball” as he says where in Serbia, every teen-aged player must follow a strict protocol, regardless of size. They do not assign you a position. They teach the player how to play face to the basket, side to the basket and back to the basket. They teach everyone technique and tactic over three-point shots or dunks.

What pro scouts saw as Jokic’s best attribute during his games played overseas was not his points or rebounds for a man his size but his unique ability to impact the game as a Conductor like he was directing an Orchestra? They saw his amazing court awareness, a vision and touch that you couldn’t teach despite his lack of experience?

The body – all scouts knew the right team that took a chance on this player would round him into shape one day. What talent evaluators also noticed about Jokic at such a young age? That he played with an unusual “Calmness” that no moment was too big for him!

Within three years of joining the NBA, Jokic began to blossom and averaged a double-double. By his fourth, he was an All-Star. During the 2020 postseason, Jokic averaged 25 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists per game. He was highly praised for helping rally Denver from a 3-1 playoff series deficit to stun the sports world in knocking off the Los Angeles Clippers, the prohibitive favorites, to advance to the Western Conference Finals.

Watching Jokic develop out on the court reminds me how much his game translates to the philosophy once shared by legendary UCLA college basketball coach John Wooden? That it wasn’t about a person size or strength? It was more about being in the right position at the right time. It was how big you played even for that one minute when it mattered most and where you were when you jumped?

Which is so true if you saw that highlight reel of Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat as an example when he blocked a last minute dunk attempt by a Boston Celtics player to save the playoff game victory for his NBA team!

Here is the Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hTsXwDWE6g

Jim Loria


MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES RELATING TO THIS STORY 

“I believe stress keeps you from greatness. Creating all these weird distractions and concerns prevents you from connecting with those parts of yourself that help you do bigger things” – stated by Gabrielle Reece, Pro Beach Volleyball Player

--------------

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them" – stated by George Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright who won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925


###

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Motivational Story - The Process

Image
For this piece, I am going to dip into the movie industry to illustrate the point about the “PROCESS”, a term every athlete hears and has engraved in the back of his or her mind on a yearly basis when competing in team sports? This will show you that no matter the sport or the profession or regardless of your experience, that you have to be totally prepared before the lights ever get turned on in order to achieve the results necessary to advance in your trade? So let's look at the Process Hollywood actor Rami Malek subjected himself to when he got the leading role in “Bohemian Rhapsody” where he played legendary frontman Freddie Mercury of the famed rock band QUEEN back in 2018. This actor took an entire year to learn every single aspect about Mercury’s life and left no stone unturned. He quickly took up residence in London where much of the movie would be filmed and had himself fitted for prosthetic dentures to replicate the unique bucked teeth and shape of Mercury’s mouth. He ...
Read more

MOTIVATIONAL STORY - TOM BRADY: THE WILL ALWAYS FINDS A WAY

Image
  For this piece, I encourage you to set aside five minutes in your day to watch this fantastic video we are sharing from Tom Brady , the 7-time Super Bowl winning NFL quarterback! He takes time to tell you his secrets about reaching your Dreams. Tom talks about how as an athlete, he was not blessed with the physical traits that scouts seek in a prospect. That he was told by some coaches and scouts back in his early days to look for a new career. That he just wasn’t good enough. He will tell you that he had to find other traits to help him achieve his Dreams … traits like discipline, work effort and perseverance to overcome skills that he might have been lacking. He speaks about working to be one percent better than the day before. To take care of your body - it is your #1 Asset. That the Magic you’re looking for is in the Will of Trying. That WILL always Finds a Way! This is a highly motivating video from one of the great winning athletes of all time! Jim Loria Tom Brady Video L...
Read more

Motivational Story - Never Give Up on Your Dream

Image
I was watching some reruns of the old “X Games” on cable television and admiring the daredevil skills of the guys and gals involved in Snowboarding. When I did some research, I came across a story on one of the past athletes I wanted to share that was about the ultimate in desire and perseverance to pursue a childhood dream. This tells the story about Justin Reiter , then age 33, who was chosen for the Alpine Snowboard team that would compete in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. This piece is not going to be about the Olympic result but rather the incredible Mission he took to get there! Justin left home in California at age 18 to make the move to Colorado so that he could train and race against the best competition in the U.S. and around the world. Twice he would fall short in his first two attempts to make the Olympic team at the trials; once because of injury in 2006 and the other by just one qualifying spot in 2010. Before you read further, know that for most of the U.S....
Read more