Nikola Jokic Urges NBA Players to Play in Euroleague: “It’s a Big Deal”

Nikola Jokic has been defending European basketball's culture for a while now. Back in late November, reacting to Zeljko Obradovic's shock resignation from Partizan, the three-time MVP said that Partizan and Red Star Belgrade "deserve" their place in EuroLeague because of the passion both clubs bring to the city and the sport.

Now he's gone further, arguing that every NBA player should have to live inside that pressure for himself.

"I wish every NBA player would go play six months in Europe just to see how much pressure there is," Jokic said.

"You play Wednesday against Olympiacos in Greece, then you're playing at home against Red Star or Partizan," Jokic said. "If you have three losses in a row, it's a big deal."

In a EuroLeague table where every result matters from October through the playoffs, a three-game skid isn't a blip teams can shrug off on an 82-game schedule - it's treated like a crisis.

Nikola Jokic never played EuroLeague himself. He signed with Serbian club Mega Basket in 2012 and was picked by Denver with the 41st selection three years later, skipping the continent's top tier on his way to the NBA.

But he's stayed close to it since. The Joker has followed clubs like Olympiacos and roots for countrymen such as Nikola Milutinov, once saying Milutinov "is supposed to be in the NBA, but he likes it over there."

Jokic wasn't alone in making this case. Shaquille O'Neal, in Lithuania this week to watch Zalgiris host Olympiacos, said much the same thing from the opposite side of the experience: "Guys over there, everybody plays hard all 36 games," O'Neal said, contrasting it with an NBA where, in his words, "they kind of chill out until the All-Star game or the playoffs or whatever."

The two didn't describe the same thing from the same angle. O'Neal is an outsider getting his first real look at what that intensity feels like in person. Jokic grew up inside it, and his challenge isn't really about talent - American arenas are still where the league's best players compete.

It's about a calendar that lets NBA teams survive a bad week with little consequence, versus a European one that doesn't offer that cushion.

That's the case Jokic made when he said "it's a big deal." Three losses in the NBA is a minor stretch. Three losses in the week he described can be the difference between staying in a job and not.

Whether or not any NBA player takes him up on the six-month experiment, Jokic has been consistent about why he thinks it would matter.