How Nikola Jokic and Peyton Watson's viral commercial came to life

Peyton Watson was working out in Los Angeles in September when he got wind of an opportunity to star in a set of commercials alongside one of his Nuggets teammates.

That teammate was Nikola Jokic.

Watson and Jokic share the same agency, Excel Sports, and when Watson was presented with an official offer to appear in the commercials for hotels.com that were to run on Christmas Day, the Nuggets’ second-year forward said he was “blown away.”

“I had never been in anything that major,” Watson told DNVR. “And getting to do it with someone like Joker, it made the process that much easier. They let us improvise a little bit too and just be ourselves. So it was a huge, huge deal for me.”

Jokic and Watson filmed the commercials during a 10-hour day on set in Los Angeles when the Nuggets were in town during the preseason to play the Clippers.

Watson says there was “never a dull moment” throughout the day.

“It definitely took us our fair share of takes to get it right,” Watson told DNVR. “It probably shouldn’t have taken as long as it did, but it’s just the little things. Like you’ll just start laughing in the middle of the scene while you’re trying to be serious, or you’ll just mess up a line a little bit. And then it’s also important the way you say everything and what you’re emphasizing.”

“I get why producers and directors get paid so much now.”

In Denver, the Jokic-Watson dynamic has been interesting to watch unfold. At training camp before this season, Watson told DNVR that Jokic took him aside before one of the Nuggets’ practices and relayed what he thought the 21-year-old’s focus should be this season.

“You’re gonna have to do the things that nobody else wants to do,” Jokic told Watson.

He’s done that and more. Watson scored in double-figures in four-straight games earlier this month and continues to make strides as a defender. He’s averaging 2.5 blocks per 100 possessions, the same amount as reigning Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr., and Watson has also hit a 3-pointer in six of his last seven games. He’s continuing to grow more confident in his shot.

Watson says Jokic has taken him under his wing. You feel like he’s gradually gaining Jokic’s trust too.

“I think he’s really young and he plays with so much energy, so much emotions,” Jokic said of Watson last week. “I think sometimes he just needs to calm down a little bit, if that makes sense. When he does something good, he figures out, oh, this is a good thing. This is how I’m supposed to play. He still plays with a lot of energy. It’s a good thing. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. When he slows down and he does a couple of good things, he figures it out.”

Watson says his favorite of the two commercials that he and Jokic filmed was the one that featured a miniature horse. But when Watson initially read through his lines for the scene ahead of time, he thought the horse would be on a green screen and not live in person.

Jokic, of course, wasn’t thrown off by the animal’s presence. The Finals MVP feeding the miniature horse an apple out of his hand was one of the highlights of the day.

“We literally had a mini pony in the lobby of the hotel,” Watson told DNVR. “I was like, ‘This is a wild animal!’ But Joker wasn’t tripping at all. He said this horse was half the size of his horses.”