By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Partizan Belgrade’s former legendary coach Dusko Vujosevic talked about how the club ignored Nikola Jokic back when the current NBA MVP was a youngster because he was considered “fat” and because no one believed in his potential at all.
Not even Vujosevic, who has an eye for prospects, himself thought that Jokic was of any worth.
“I can make it up and mess around now, but I’ll be honest. I just didn’t see him, I didn’t notice him,” Vujosevic said to Mozzart Sport. “I know that people who did scout work at Partizan told me that he was fat and that it wasn’t worth bringing him in. Now I’m very sorry for that. This oversight only speaks of the weakness in the structures of Partizan. While Jokić was fat for us, Miško Raznatović recognized him and took him to Mega. I am terribly sorry for that.”
Jokic signed with Mega in 2012 and three years later was drafted by the Denver Nuggets with the 41st overall pick. The rest was MVP history.
“I have to be honest and say that, if someone had told me a few years ago that Doncic and Jokić would be the biggest stars in the NBA, I would’ve stared at him with amazement,” Vujosevic also mentioned. “I couldn’t even dream that something like that was possible. It is very difficult to figure out what happened and how one young boy, who played solid basketball in the ABA league with the jersey of an average club like Mega, became the MVP of the strongest league in the world in such a short time. It is a success for all the respect, but I still believe that a serious analysis is needed to find out the reasons for such an epilogue. “