Nikola Jokić’s latest trip to Chicago produced a milestone that normally dominates headlines: another triple-double. His 182nd. Moving him past Oscar Robertson into second place on the NBA’s all-time list.
But in the Serbian diaspora media sphere, the conversation immediately swerved away from history and toward humanity.
In a column published February 8, Serbian Times writer Antonije Kovačević described a postgame scene at the United Center involving a youth folklore group, “Tromeđa,” connected to the Church of St. George in Indiana. According to Kovačević, roughly 50 children and young people traveled to Chicago, performed Serbian folk dances and games as a welcome, and then waited afterward hoping to meet Jokić, only to be waved past without a greeting, photo, or brief interaction.
Kovačević framed the moment as emblematic of the “difference between a great basketball player and a great man,” contrasting Jokić’s alleged lack of engagement with an earlier, separate postgame scenario he also describes. In that earlier account – also set after a Denver–Chicago game – Kovačević wrote that a large group of children waited in an arena corridor and left disappointed, before Bulls center Nikola Vučević later appeared to take photos and speak with families.
