Nikola Jokic’s Advice to International Rival Confirms Narrative Around Nuggets Star

There have been plenty of headline-making moves this season, from Kevin Durant’s arrival in Houston to Damian Lillard’s shocking exit from Milwaukee. While these moves might be the talk of the town, hardly any of them would create as much of an impact as the Denver Nuggets’ signing of Jonas Valanciunas. And even though the Lithuanian big man is yet to suit up for the Mile High City, it seems like he’s just getting along pretty well with his new teammate, Nikola Jokic.

How do we know? Well, right now, both players are representing their nations at the EuroBasket 2025. Although both centers haven’t faced each other yet in the competition, Valanciunas revealed that he did, in fact, get a chance to talk with his new teammate. During his media availability before Lithuania’s clash against Latvia in the Round of 16, the big man revealed that he talked to Jokic not about basketball but about the Serbian’s favorite topic: Horses.

“Yeah, we talked about horses,” Valanciunas joked with the reporters. “He gave me some advice.” The new Denver Nuggets star confirmed that the Joker is obsessed with horses (if there were any doubts). The three-time NBA MVP’s love for horses is hardly a secret anymore, with him not only publicly admitting to it, but there being several videos of him spending some quality time in his stable back in Serbia. In fact, not too long ago, a video comparing Jokic’s reaction to winning the NBA championship and his horse winning a race went viral.

In that clip, Jokic was seen being pretty calm and not too affected while collecting the Larry O’Brien trophy, whereas he was seen crying and celebrating with champagne when his horse won the race in Subotica, Serbia. It’s safe to say that once Denver Nuggets superstar is all set and done from basketball, you’ll most probably find him training and breeding horses back in his native country, where he owns several stables already. However, before that day comes, there’s still a lot for him to play for on the court, including a EuroBasket medal.

Serbia gears up for a pivotal clash against Finland in the Round of 16

Serbia arrived at the EuroBasket 2025 as absolute favourites to win the gold medal, and while they’ve totally shown that for most of the group stage, Thursday night’s loss against Alperen Sengun-led Turkey has raised a few eyebrows. There was drama, there was tension, as two undefeated teams from Group A clashed against each other. While many believed that Nikola Jokic and Co. would walk out with a perfect group stage record, it was Turkey who stole the show with a 95-90 win over the Serbians.

Even though both teams had already qualified for the last 16, this loss cost them the pole position and a much easier first knockout game against Sweden, as the Joker and his team will now face a pretty solid Finland team filled with talent, including Utah Jazz superstar Lauri Markkanen. The young superstar has been phenomenal so far in the competition and will certainly be one to keep an eye out for the Serbians. So, are the Serbians up for the task?

Well, they should have enough to hold down Finland, but they have several injury concerns. They’ve already lost their captain, Bogdan Bogdanovic, due to a knee injury for the rest of the competition. If that wasn’t concerning enough, now Aleksa Avramovic is also questionable for this Round of 16 clash against Finland. However, the good news is Serbia does have plenty of options, such as Marko Guduric and Vasilije Micic, who have stepped up in the absence of Bogdanovic and Avramovic.

So, they should be able to take care of this Finnish team that has only won three of its five group games. More so, given that they still have their best player, Nikola Jokic, by their side. So far, at the EuroBasket 2025, the Serbian superstar has averaged 20.2 points along with 9.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists. Even though these are not the best numbers by the big man’s high standards, they should be more than enough to help them advance through to the next round, as everyone awaits tip-off at Arena Riga, Latvia, on September 7th.