(Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)
National teams are gearing up for next summer’s Olympics in Paris, and Team USA is planning on likely having an Avengers-style squad after it failed to claim a medal in the FIBA World Cup last month.
The rest of the world has caught up to the Americans when it comes to basketball, and there are a few European nations that could conceivably defeat them if they aren’t capable or don’t field a good enough roster.
Serbia is hoping to make a run, especially now that Nikola Jokic will play for them in the Olympics, per ClutchPoints.
Serbia’s Olympic Committee President confirms that Nikola Jokic will play for Serbia in the 2024 Paris Olympics
(via @diarioas) pic.twitter.com/mln7BQXuWY
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) October 16, 2023
Jokic, the superstar center for the Denver Nuggets, is arguably the best player in the world right now, as he’s coming off a season in which he nearly averaged a triple-double and won his first NBA championship while winning NBA Finals MVP honors.
Many feel he is the favorite to win this season’s MVP award, which would be his third, while his Nuggets are one of the favorites to win it all.
Jokic is one of the league’s more improbable success stories, as he was originally a second-round draft pick in 2014 and didn’t make his first All-Star team until his fourth season.
But after that, he quickly took off, averaging 26.4 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 8.3 assists a game as he was named the regular-season MVP for the first of two consecutive years during the 2020-21 season.
At age 28, he is early in his prime and likely has several outstanding years left in him as long as he avoids major injury.
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