Nikola won the award for NBA Finals MVP in June 2023 after the Denver Nuggets won their first NBA title. Altitude TV tweeted a video of Natalija supporting her husband in the stands shortly after his Game 5 victory. In the video, the happy lady was holding her daughter and shouting with pride while sporting a Nuggets jersey. The clip’s caption read, “The celebration from Joki’s wife is everything.”
While Nikola plays in the NBA, having the support of his wife and children has been important.
In January of that year, he told Serbia’s Arena TV, “I think all of us who have a wife and kids should be happy with the persons we have beside us.” “Having a regular life lifts you up and only benefits you,”
Who is the wife of Nikola Jokic? Here is all the information you need to know about Natalija Jokic and her connection to the NBA player.
She and Nikola both hail from Sombor, Serbia
Both Natalija and Nikola are from Sombor, Serbia, a small town in the nation’s northwest with a population of only 47,000. Nikola frequently talks positively about their native country, even though the pair has only been residents in Denver since 2015.
It is a very small village in Serbia’s northwest. We have incredibly beautiful nature here, Nikola told SLAM magazine. “But I simply enjoy the atmosphere there. Like a family, it is.
In their already-furnished flat, Nikola and Natalija brought one small piece of home when they initially relocated to Denver for his NBA career. According to Bleacher Report, they hung a tiny black-and-white photo of Kralja Peter, Sombor’s main street, where they used to spend summer nights and enjoy ice cream.
During the NBA off-season, the two frequently visit Sombor, according to the Denver Post. After Nikola won the MVP award for the second time in a row in May 2022, Natalija helped set up a surprise visit so that some of his Nuggets’ coaches could be present as the star center got the prized award from a horse stable in Sombor. Nikola has also said that he and his family will permanently go back to Sombor after his career in the NBA is over.
“After my career is over, I’m gonna go back there,” Nikola told Bleacher Report. “It’s super slow — not too much going on — but you have everything. You have a canal, nature; you can get peace of mind outside the city. I just like to be some place where I know how to drive a car without navigation. How I say, no place like home? Something like that.”
She and Nikola are high school sweethearts
Natalija shared a flashback snapshot of the couple from October 2012 on her Instagram, when they were both just 17 years old. Nikola and Natalija have been dating since they were teenagers. On her social media, Natalija frequently posts pictures of them, documenting their vacations and significant life events like their wedding and daughter’s birth.
On Instagram, Natalija frequently expresses her love and appreciation for her spouse. The first time Nikola was selected for the NBA All-Star squad, in February 2019, Natalija posted a picture of the two of them with the message, “All Star of my heart.”
Nikola’s basketball career has flourished, but the couple has remained grounded despite this. When Nikola was named the Western Conference Player of the Month in February 2021, he told reporters that he enjoyed the award “with my wife at home.”
“I mean, that’s what I did,” he added.
She moved to the U.S. before Nikola to play college volleyball
2013 saw Natalija relocate to the United States to play volleyball at Seminole State College in Oklahoma while Nikola continued to play basketball in Serbia. One of the factors that convinced Nikola to pursue a basketball career in the United States was the former setter, who played two seasons at Seminole State.
According to a Sports Illustrated feature of Nikola from 2017, the center declined a deal from the Denver Nuggets to join their squad in the middle of the 2014 season. But as Nikola started to think about his two older brothers, who adored the United States, and Natalija, who was living in Oklahoma at the time, he started to question his decision to relocate to Denver.
She lived in an apartment with Nikola and his two older brothers
Nikola resided in a three-bedroom apartment downtown with his two elder brothers, Nemanja and Strahinja, as well as his then-girlfriend Natalija when he first relocated to Denver to play for the Nuggets in 2015. According to Sports Illustrated, the three Jokic brothers hung a mini-hoop in the corridor, which allowed Natalija to see multiple tough indoor basketball matches while she shared a home with them.
She Nikola got married in October 2020 in their hometown
Nikola and Natalija got married on October 24, 2020, in Sombor, Serbia, after becoming engaged in January 2020. The NBA moved its season to the bubble in Orlando, Florida as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, therefore the wedding was postponed from its planned June 2020 date.
On Twitter, a video of Nikola and Natalija’s wedding appeared, showing the NBA star center singing and dancing with his bride. On her Instagram page, Natalija posted several images from their special day and referred to the wedding as her “favorite party of all time.”
Nikola has kept a memento of his fiancée close by ever since their wedding day, even when he is traveling for the NBA. As shown in multiple images shared on Twitter, the Nuggets center now fastens his wedding band to his sneakers before each game.