But at least the way one of his former Denver Nuggets teammates tells the story, Jokic's basketball career was almost over three years ago. On the Straight Game Podcast, DeMarcus Cousins shared the story that Jokic nearly retired in 2022 rather than sign his supermax extension with Denver. Jokic was 27 at the time.

Nikola Jokić is going strong with the Denver Nuggets and is well on his way to being a Hall of Famer, but he apparently considered retiring a few years ago.