Love and Basketball: Meet Denver Nuggets MVP Nikola Jokić's High School Sweetheart
Published May 30 2023, 7:54 p.m. ET
The Denver Nuggets finally found their flow during the 2022-2023 game season. Among the star players who have helped put the team in the spotlight is European pro-athlete Nikola Jokić.
The center was first signed to the team in the second round of the 2014 NBA Draft and in the last few years, he’s risen to the top of the pack. Now that the Denver Nuggets have a shot at the Finals — fans are dying to know more about the team’s MVP.
Previously, a lot of people assumed that the Olympic-winning basketball player was a bachelor, however, those rumors have since been debunked as reports confirm that he has a wife and kid. But who’s Nikola married to? Here’s what we know!
Wait, Denver Nuggets player Nikola Jokić is married? Meet his wife, Natalija!
Sorry, ladies. Those hoping to shoot his shot at Nikola will be disappointed to learn that he’s taken by one very lucky Serbian woman named Natalija Mačešić.
Every game, the basketball player ties his wedding ring to his shoelaces so that he can keep his family by his side while he’s on the court — a technique Nikola learned from an old teammate.
According to the internet, Nikola and his longtime love have been together since they were teenagers. Both Nikola and Natalija hail from Sombor, Serbia, where they first met. They started dating in high school and eventually moved to Denver, along with Nikola’s two brothers, in 2015.
“My brothers came with me and my girlfriend came with me, so we tried to make our home here and not allow all the different things to bother us,” he said in an interview with SLAM.
The two dated for five years before they tied the knot in their hometown in 2020. Soon after they got married, they announced that they were expecting their first child together. But how many kids do Nikola and Natalija have? Keep reading to find out …
Does Nikola Jokić have kids?
In early May of 2023, Nikola and his only daughter, Ognjena, shared a now-viral moment at the NBA finals that made our hearts melt. A clip sees Nikola’s daughter point at her ring finger, encouraging her daddy to secure the championship. He then echoed the gesture back at his daughter as we all swooned collectively.
In the past, Nikola shared that his athletic career forces him to take more time away from his family than he’d like to. "I play 100 games away, I'm not home for 100 days. When I come home, Ognjena is different. Literally, in five days, she changes you know,” he told Arena TV in an interview (per PEOPLE.)
But, hey — an All-Star’s gotta do what an All-Star’s gotta do.
