"He's become a synonym for good passing": A Q&A with Nikola Jokic's Serbian godfather

One win is all that’s keeping the Nuggets from making the playoffs for the first time since 2013. Wednesday’s regular-season finale between Denver and Minnesota will determine which of the West’s up-and-coming teams breaks through after years of rebuilding. There’s buzz about the game even on the other side of the Atlantic.

“Everybody in Serbia is talking about that game,” Nebojsa Vagic said. “It’s one game for the playoffs, and they’re both fighting for it.”

Vagic, 41, is an assistant coach with the Serbian club FMP Belgrade. He is also Nikola Jokic’s godfather. Last summer, Vagic trained Jokic in Sombor, Serbia, where they grew up, alongside several members of the Nuggets’ staff.

A couple hours before Wednesday’s game, Vagic spoke to BSN Denver in a phone interview about Jokic’s progress in his third NBA season, his gifts as a passer and what life in Sombor is like.

BSN: How did you get to know the Jokic family? 

Vagic: I knew his brothers. I’ve known them for 20 years, especially Strahinja. We used to play basketball together. He’s younger than me. But we went out together playing basketball, and we got along. Of course, I knew Nemanja, but he spent some times in the States and New York. But we were quite good friends. Basketball is what joined us all together. Love for basketball. Strahinja is really passionate about basketball like he is for everything. Nikola was very young. When he grew up enough to go out with his brother — not in the night time but during the day — we became close. Strahinja and Nemanja liked me, so he liked me as well. Their parents recognized me as a part of their family.

BSN: Nikola is shooting the three ball right around 40 percent this year on a lot more attempts. He told me that was one of the things you focused on this summer. How confident does he looks with his shot right now?

Vagic: Not as confident as I would like him to be. I would like him to be a bit more aggressive participating in shooting for three points. He’s shooting a high percentage. But he likes seeing himself as very elegant and a not greedy basketball player. That means he shoots a high percentage. He hates missing shots. That’s why sometimes he doesn’t go for that many shots. I always criticize him for that. Always. Last summer we shot every day, hundreds of shots. He shot a very high percentage. Mr. Mike Malone was there. (Former strength and conditioning coach) Steve Hess. (Current strength and conditioning coach) Felipe Eichenberger. (Player development coach) Ognjen Stojakovic. They all witnessed that.

I know training and the game is not the same of course. But it’s a matter of his character. It doesn’t allow him to be that aggressive. Aggressiveness is what he needs a little bit more. But he can’t be everything. I know that. This summer is coming. We’re going to focus on the three-point training. This summer we will increase that.

BSN: The two things that stick out to me about Nikola’s game the most are his passing and his soft shooting touch. Are those gifts he’s always had? 

Vagic: Yes. I can talk about that forever. It’s not possible to explain that. I make fun about that. I’m not talented to make the pass. I’m not talented enough to make the shots like he does. It’s the other way around. I’m always laughing like, ‘God gave him all these things and didn’t give them to me.’ And he laughs. He makes fun of me all the time like I’m made of wood. I’m not talented. We enjoy having laughs like that. It’s not possible to explain his passes and his sense for basketball. It’s just what he does. It’s not easy to explain. I’ve never seen this except for him. I don’t know what to say about his passing and his super sensitive touch on the basketball. My English is not good enough to express myself about it. Really.

BSN: Nikola has described himself as a kid as a fat point guard. Did you know him in those days? 

Vagic: Yeah. I didn’t know much about him. But he was exactly like that. He looked nothing like a basketball player. But nobody could take the ball away from him. It was funny. He was always finding the player who was alone to shoot the ball. He was really talented with that. It’s the gift given by God or whatever you want to call it. Everything else starts and stops there. Nothing else can explain that.

Even today, he’s getting better. His passes are always accurate, always sharp. It’s just perfect. I try to teach my guys to hand off and pass the ball like him. I tell them, ‘Guys, look at what Nikola Jokic does. Just watch him. I want you to hand off the ball and pass the ball like him.’ He’s become a synonym for good passing and good handoffs.

BSN: Are you able to watch Nuggets games overseas? How closely do you keep up with team?

Vagic: I have watched nearly every game. Out of 81, I’ve maybe missed five or six games when we were away and traveling. I’ve watched like 75 games this season.

BSN: As far as Nikola’s progress this season, how much better do you think he’s gotten from game one to game 81 now? 

Vagic: He has become a lot better. More mature. He’s more confident now. He’s harder. He’s going the right direction. The reason why I’m saying that is that he’s getting all the benefits and becoming a better basketball player, and he’s got nothing of the characteristics of the players who are getting better. And what I mean is that they can become greedy. They don’t respect teammates. They don’t respect coaches on their team. He got all the good things but none of the bad things. He’s become really, really good, and he’s not losing focus for the basketball, and he’s not losing love for the basketball.

BSN: What is your hometown of Sombor like? 

Vagic: We call it a picturesque town. It’s surrounded with three rivers. One of them is Danube, and it’s really close to us. It’s like a five to 10 minute drive from our house to get to bungalows at the Danube. On those bungalows, we go fishing or we go paddling around. People go hunting sometimes. It’s a nature protected area, so nobody can build anything over there. There’s no pollution over there. There’s so much wildlife over there. It’s so quiet. We go there to cook food, to eat fishes. We spend time in nature around Sombor a lot. The town has everything a town has to have like a university, a museum, a theatre, cinemas. Places to go out. So many places to go out. Downtown is beautiful. Our town was announced as the greenest town in Europe in 1985 officially. If you go for images of Sombor, it’s packed with trees and bushes. It looks nice.

BSN: What do you know about Denver? 

Vagic: I know that it is a Mile High town because it is 1,600 meters elevation. Nothing really more than that.

BSN: There are mountains here. A lot of people move here for the natural beauty. Do you ever hear Nikola talk about this being a pretty place? 

Vagic: He did take dozens of pictures and send them to me. His brothers went to Aspen, a place where people go skiing. It looks really nice. Steve Hess told me a couple of things about Denver. It looks nice. It’s nothing like Sombor, but Denver is nothing like any other American town an average Serbian would think of. You normally wouldn’t think it’s in America — concrete huge buildings and skyscrapers. Denver looks quite different from my perspective.