Showalter, speaking to baseball reporters on June 2, praised the Jokic brothers while discussing Nikola's performance in game one of the NBA finals.
“What about the game last night? Is that center any good?” Showalter deadpanned. “I love the fact that he didn't score hardly the first quarter and was a key to the first quarter, maybe the game. What a lesson. I also loved watching his two brothers in that series [against the Phoenix Suns in 2021 Western Semis] when they had a little scrap going on. Those two guys come out of the stands, it's on."
It was ESPN commentator Mark Jackson who referenced the Jokic brothers' alleged scrum during the game three drubbing, sayingthat"Jokic’s brother is in the stands giving it to a Heat fan."
Footage has emerged online showing Strahinja interacting with fans and Jamal Murray's father at one point, but no real skirmishes.
Having Nikola's back is something that runs deep in the Jokic brothers' psyche, to the point where they typically attend every game he plays during the regular season and playoffs. Away matchups have proven to be the brothers' bread and butter, with the trio often traveling and partying together.
Paul Bunyan had Babe the Blue Ox — for Nikola, it's Strahinja and Nemanja.
— Ball Don’t Lie (@Balldontlie) November 30, 2021Nikola Jokic and his brothers celebrated last night's win in Miami like they just won gold in the Olympics 🤣
(via mr.andrija__ / IG) pic.twitter.com/R1Gsjw3oQW
"Basically [they have been with me] my whole life," Nikola told reporters on May 27 ahead of the NBA finals.
"My mom and dad was always supporting [me], my dad especially. He always thought that I could be something more. ... Then when I go to the other city, and kind of my older brother took that role and kind of he lived with me, and then we came to the United States, and then my brother, Nemanja, who lives here before, seven years, I think, or nine years, it's like fifteen years, we get together, and it's just a nice journey."
Part of the thrill of getting drafted by the Nuggets, Jokic said, was being able to reunite with his brothers. In fact, it was the only thing he cared about.
"To be honest, when I was coming to United States, I was happy that I'm going to be with them," Jokic admitted. "When you're a kid and you're small, when you were little, you always want to be around with the big brothers, and...I was more happy to be around them than being in NBA."
On the surface, it's easy to assume that the Jokic brothers are nothing more than Nikola's goons, with countless people calling the Serbian brutes out online, along with their supporters. But their relationship with the NBA star is actually much, much deeper than that.
There was a time not too long ago in Serbia when it was Nikola who was cheering on and chasing the success of Strahinja and Nemanja, with the goal of following in their footsteps as athletes.
"When I was a kid, I just watched my brothers," remembered Nikola in a 2016 op-ed for The Players' Tribune. "They play basketball, too. We had some courts outside in our hometown. When they would play on those courts, I would watch when I was a little baby with my pacifier. I mix a little bit of both of them. One is talented, one is really strong. I’m a little bit talented, and a little bit strong."
The brothers all lived together with their parents in a "really small" apartment in Sombor, according to Nikola, with the importance of family a reoccurring theme in the Jokic household.
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The Jokic brothers have been supporting Nikola since his early days in the NBA.
Instagram/Natalija Jokic
"It was my mom, dad, me, my two brothers and my grandma," wrote Jokic. "It was always a full house. My brothers — cousins really, but in Serbia we call them brothers — also came over. It was always a full house of people, and we always mess around. We were crazy kids. We were making a lot of noise."
Basketball, of course, was a family staple. "We even had a little basketball hoop in our apartment, and my brothers would play with me when I was little," Nikola recalled. "The neighbor downstairs would always come up and complain about us making too much noise."
Speaking to Sports Illustrated in 2017, the Jokic brothers peeled back the curtain on their childhoods, saying their lives focused on camaraderie and a passion to compete. Nikola also shared what became the legendary Strahinja knife story.
"He once held down my arms and threw knives all around my head," Nikola told SI of his big bro, noting how it was punishment for not climbing a tree like Strahinja had asked him to. "That was a little crazy."
Nikola was just ten years old when Nemenja left Sombor to play basketball in the United States. The middle Jokic wound up playing at the University of Detroit Mercy on a scholarship before later transferring to the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University. He had a stint with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Steamers in the Premier Basketball League before eventually stepping away from the sport for good.
"I made mistakes," Nemanja told SI. "When I was young, basketball wasn't my No. 1 priority. Going out, having fun, drinking, girls, that was my No. 1 priority. I was making my own decisions...when I still needed family support. That's what I was missing."
When it came to Nikola, Nemanja wasn't going to make the same mistakes twice — whether the youngest Jokic liked it or not.
"Nikola doesn't have a choice in whether he wants us around or not," Nemanja said. "He's an intelligent guy and I'm confident he wouldn't get off track here [in America]. But this is such an important time and I want him to have the kind of support I didn't. I always tell him, 'You're living my dream. Don't take it for granted. Don't make the mistakes we made.'"
When Nikola was younger and playing for Mega Basket, a Belgrade-based Serbian club, Strahinja reportedly moved closer to him to keep track of his diet and conditioning — making sure he ate right and didn't stop working out. Nemanja, meanwhile, tried to help hone Nikola's already impressive game on the hardwood.
"The first time I saw him play, he was throwing these behind-the-back passes that no one else would even try," he told SI. "And everybody let him. They didn't tell him he couldn't do it. They knew he had this really unique skill."
While in Denver, the brothers hung another mini hoop in the apartment just like they did back home in Sombor. "We're still playing one-on-one, taking charges, swearing at each other," Jokic told SI.
After Nikola got drafted by Denver, the Jokic brothers all moved into a three-bedroom apartment in the shadow of Coors Field — along with Nikola's wife, Natalija, a high school sweetheart who'd come to the U.S. to play volleyball. They tried to make the Nuggets star feel at home, but his longing for Sombor remained.
"I'm homesick," Nikola told Bleacher Report in 2017. "I am the third kid, and I am a little closer with my parents than [my brothers] are."
Nemanja fired back, "He's spoiled."
Not having his parents in Denver to watch his Nuggets games was something that weighed heavy on Nikola's mind and heart when he first got to the NBA; his father was reportedly No. 15's biggest fan. "Our dad is really passionate about watching the games," Nemanja told BR. "He screams, yells. Nobody sits around him." Now, it's Strahinja who carries that family torch.
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 15, 2021This angle of Jokic’s brothers during his run-in with Booker 😳
(via @LeBatardShow & Konner Fritz) pic.twitter.com/kvR5brSmsN
While the Jokic brothers have been on the radar of Nuggets fans and Denver sports outlets for more than half a decade, it wasn't until June 2021 and the Western Conference semis that the national spotlight focused on them.
During a confrontation between Nikola and Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker during a game in Phoenix, Nemanja and Strahinja were both caught on camera yelling and bowing up to Booker from the stands. The incident went viral, and videos of Strahinja and Nemanja can still be found all over social media.
In November 2021, the brothers made headlines again after they created a Twitter account to talk trash to NBA star Marcus Morris, who'd called out Nikola for a push that the Nuggets center delivered on his own brother, Markeiff Morris, during a game against the Heat.
"Waited till bro turned his back smh," Marcus tweeted, adding: "NOTED."
The response from the Jokic brothers: "You should leave this the way it is instead of publicly threatening our brother! Your brother made a dirty play first. If you want to make a step further be sure we will be waiting for you!! Jokic Brothers."
While most of the news surrounding the Jokic brothers has been basketball-related, one has found himself on the wrong side of the law: Strahinja was arrested in 2019 for allegedly choking and pushing a woman; he later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of obstruction of phone service and felony trespassing and had his other charges dismissed.
No matter what you think of them, it's hard to not be infatuated with the Jokic family and their story, which has now become part of the Nuggets story — to the point that the team is even tweeting out videos of Strahinja and Nemanja celebrating wins with Coach Michael Malone.
THIS MOMENT pic.twitter.com/qGTqgt94VJ
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) May 23, 2023
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The Jokic brothers often rub shoulders with fans in the Mile High City.
Chris Perez
The Jokic brothers' love for both basketball and Nikola is something that doesn't just come out when he's under the bright lights, either: Nemanja and Strahinja are constantly backing up their baby bro, as evidenced by a chance meeting that I got to have with the eldest Jokic at Einstein Bagels on Broadway last year.
"So good," Strahinja told me as we gushed over Nikola's 2021-2022 MVP season.
"What are you doing today, brotha?" he then asked, shocking me with his kindness and down-to-earth attitude. This was a Jokic brother, after all.
"We're riding motorcycles," Strahinja said after I asked about his day. "We're riding motorcycles through the mountains."
Jokic brothers legend, confirmed.
