He’s a three-time MVP—and he’s gunning for a fourth. Nikola Jokic, the “horse-loving”, “undedicated” Denver Nuggets superstar, is proving the doubters wrong yet again. Leading the league in rebounds and assists, he’s the engine behind the Nuggets’ dominance. But Jokic is more than just numbers; he’s a story. A mystery. The 29-year-old has always been an enigma, and it makes you wonder—what was he like as a kid and a rookie in the league? The thought’s crossed your mind, hasn’t it?

Recently, Mike Singer from the Nuggets front office joined Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective to talk about the Joker. Well, to begin with, Nikola had a love-hate relationship with basketball, according to Singer. The author has penned down the stories from Denver which also include unheard tales of the Serbian center. But interestingly enough, “He [Nikola Jokic] had a tepid relationship with basketball during his formative years, which is, to your point, crazy to say about a three-time MVP,” shared Mike Singer.

“He hated practice. His coaches knew it. The conditioning aspect of it, he hated it. There were times in practice when he faked injuries to get out of practice. He hated running so much. His teammates knew he hated running. But he was so damn good that they needed him.” These keep sounding unreal and hilarious as you read them more and more. Can you imagine? A generational talent like Jokic whom you’d expect to break his bones (not literally!) in the gym actually ran away from training!

But wait, there’s more to the story and a rather funny episode is about to unfold. Mike Singer had another tale he wrote in his book. In the story, Nikola Jokic’s “teammates are literally running around a horse track training and conditioning. He is on the inside of the horse track training horses!”

“And they’re begging him, they’re pleading with him. Come on, man, can you please condition? Can you run with us? Like, you need to. He’s on his chariot. He takes his feet off the chariot mimics jogging with his teammates and says, ‘This is the best you’re going to get from me.'” The stories are 100% believable according to Brian Windhorst. Meanwhile, Jokic allegedly missed 12 straight practices in his formative years.

It’s truly hard to believe that a hooper of his caliber spent his time finding ways to escape training and conditioning. Despite his low-key attitude during games, Nikola Jokic shows dedication to the sport and displays bouts of aggression on the court. Meanwhile, there’s something else, he may love a bit more than basketball; horses.

Nikola Jokic’s dad and others had to “incentivize” basketball for him to hit the gym

It’s difficult to imagine Nikola Jokic as a horse trainer or equestrian. Jokic might never have joined basketball without a push or a bribe. During a Denver Nuggets media day, he shared his love for horses. He called them his first love. Jokic described it as “love at first sight” when he saw those beautiful creations of the Almighty. Mike Singer shared a story about Jokic’s first love, horses.

Maintaining horses was Nikola’s primary hobby. “I think maybe the biggest revelatory piece that I found, which it’s crazy to wrap your head around, the people around Nikola, including his dad and a couple of other people close to him, had to incentivize basketball for him to get back in the gym,” revealed Singer.

“They told him, ‘You can only do the horses if you go back to basketball. Think about that. You can only do what you really wanna do with the horses and train them and work with them and clean the stalls and everything if you get back in the gym.’ They had to lure the best basketball player in the world back into the gym during a very pivotal time. And ultimately they succeeded.” So, Jokic gave his dad, Branislav Jokic a tough time with his obsession with horses. His struggles to push their talented boy into basketball bore the results.

We should thank Nikola Jokic’s family and coach for pushing him to choose basketball and not horses. Otherwise, who would entertain us on the court and off the same? The Joker with a career average of 20.9 PPG, 3 MVP titles, 1 Finals MVP, and a championship with the Nuggets has already become a legend of the NBA. And all we can say is there’s more to come!