Inside the growing friendship between Jovic and Jokic: ‘I can say he’s my pretty good friend’
Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic (5) reacts to hitting a shot during an NBA preseason game against the San Antonio Spurs at Kaseya Center on October 8, 2025, in Miami.
DENVER
When forward Nikola Jovic was drafted by the Miami Heat in 2022, he had yet to meet Denver Nuggets superstar center Nikola Jokic.
But Jovic and Jokic have developed a friendship during the past two years while playing together for the Serbian national team in the 2024 Paris Olympics and also in the EuroBasket tournament this past offseason.
“I mean, I can say he’s my pretty good friend,” Jovic said before facing Jokic and the Nuggets on Wednesday night at Ball Arena to close a four-game trip. “I’m happy I got to meet him, I’m happy I had the chance to play with him.”
Jovic and Jokic won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics and then were eliminated in the Round of 16 in EuroBasket this year with Serbia. That experience as teammates on Serbia’s national team gave Jovic an opportunity to learn and seek advice from Jokic.
At two different stages of their NBA careers, the 22-year-old Jovic has watched the accomplished 30-year-old Jokic closely through the years. And the experience of playing together for their national team gave Jovic an even greater appreciation for the three-time NBA MVP.
“Just the way basketball should be played,” Jovic said of what he’s learned from Jokic. “He’s just so smart. Just how smart he is, how dedicated he is, how much he actually works. I think he treats this like a job, but literally only as a job, and that’s something that I learned for him. You got to do stuff that you have to do to perform at a high level. I mean, I personally don’t look at this only as a job. I really love this game, I really enjoy playing this. But maybe sometimes it’s really important to look at it as a job.”
Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic (5) reacts before the start of the first half of an NBA preseason game against the Milwaukee Bucks at Kaseya Center on October 6, 2025, in Miami. D.A. Varela [email protected]
While Jokic has already established himself as one of the NBA’s best players, Jovic is still growing into the player he hopes to be. After signing a four-year, $62.4 million rookie-scale extension with the Heat in October, it has been an uneven start to Jovic’s fourth NBA season.
Jovic entered Wednesday’s matchup against the Nuggets averaging 8.7 points, four rebounds and 2.6 assists per appearance while shooting 40.4% from the field and 34.6% from three-point range. He has been moved to a bench role after playing as a Heat starter in the season opener.
“We talk about a lot of stuff. He was mad because I signed the extension. He wanted me in Denver,” Jovic joked when asked if he catches up with Jokic during the NBA season. “But, yeah, we talk. Nothing crazy, not much. But we make sure that we stay in touch and we stick by each other because there’s not a lot of us Serbian players around the NBA.”
Along with the fact that both Jovic and Jokic are from Serbia and played for Mega Basket in Serbia before they were drafted into the NBA, they also have been linked in recent years because of the similarities in their names.
“I really did get a lot of it before, but now not as much, really,” Jovic said of the jokes he used to get regarding the similarities in their names. “I really got tired of it my second year. After that, it really stopped. I can’t remember. Actually, I heard one fan [Monday at Intuit Dome] yell ‘You want to be Jokic.’ But other than that one, it hasn’t been as much, really.”
Another thing Jovic is tired of: Jokic bothering him about the Heat’s recent struggles against the Nuggets. Entering Wednesday’s matchup, Jokic is 19-6 in games he has played against the Heat during his NBA career, including the 2023 NBA Finals that Denver defeated Miami in to clinch the NBA championship.
Entering Wednesday’s game at Ball Arena, the Heat has also dropped eight straight regular-season games to the Nuggets in Denver. The last regular-season game that the Heat won in Denver came on Nov. 30, 2016, when Hassan Whiteside totaled 25 points and 16 rebounds to lead the Heat to a 106-98 victory over the Nuggets.
“He always makes fun of me because we haven’t really won a game in the regular season against them for a long time,” Jovic said. “So, yeah, I got to try to help this team and win this game [Wednesday] because I can’t stand him talking too much [trash] anymore.”
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