Nikola Jokić visit to Mexico City for Denver Nuggets vs. Indiana Pacers, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico City): For decades, the center position was associated with strength, rebounding and dominance near the basket. Nikola Jokić changed that by making passing his main weapon, becoming the organizer of the Denver Nuggets and leading them to their first championship in 2023.
Now, with three Most Valuable Player awards, he is preparing to play in Mexico.
“I always say assists make two people happy,” Jokić explained in December 2025, the night he passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time leader in assists among centers. “My coach, Deki Milojevic, always said that.”
This Saturday, November 7, against the Indiana Pacers at Arena CDMX, Jokić could become the sixth MVP winner to play a regular-season NBA game in the country, and the first to arrive with three trophies, won in 2021, 2022 and 2024.
The last MVP to play an official game in Mexico was Derrick Rose, with the Detroit Pistons, in December 2019. Since then, almost seven years have passed without another player with that distinction stepping onto a Mexican court in the regular season.
Jokić was born on February 19, 1995, in Sombor, Serbia, and began his professional career with Mega Basket, where he was coached by Milojevic, before making the jump to the United States.
Denver selected him 41st in the 2014 Draft, far from the top picks reserved for major prospects. Jokić debuted in the NBA a year later.
His ability to read defenses, find teammates and make decisions made him the center of the offense.
Nikola won his first MVP in the 2020-21 season and repeated a year later. In 2023 he led the Nuggets to the first championship in the franchise’s history, defeating Miami in five games.
Although he was not regular-season MVP that year, he was Finals MVP. In 2024 he won his third award and became the first international player with three regular-season MVPs.
The Serbian has maintained that level without a fourth award. In 2024-25 he averaged 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists; a season later he recorded 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds and 10.7 assists.
He became the first center in history to average a triple-double over a full season and the first to repeat it.
Traditionally, guards organized the game while centers stayed near the basket. Jokić, at 2.11 meters, can start an offensive play after grabbing a rebound, find a teammate at the other end of the court or distribute the ball from the top of the zone.
His passing forces defenses to choose between guarding him or closing the spaces of his teammates. Jamal Murray receives the ball in shooting position, and Aaron Gordon finds openings with cuts toward the rim.
The Serbian did not invent the passing center: before him, two Europeans stood out for their vision, Lithuania’s Arvydas Sabonis and his compatriot Vlade Divac. His contribution was turning that skill into the foundation of a championship offense while still producing as one of the league’s leading scorers.
The scale of that change became clear in February 2026, when he recorded his 182nd triple-double and passed Oscar Robertson for second place in NBA history, behind only Russell Westbrook, as a center among guards.
The Serbian’s success coincides with a period in which players born outside the United States dominate the league. Between the 2018-19 and 2025-26 seasons, all eight MVP awards went to international players: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jokić, Joel Embiid and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Jokić won three of those eight. His influence adds to that of other European stars, such as Luka Dončić and Victor Wembanyama, who have also expanded what is expected of their positions.
Charles Barkley opened the list of MVP winners who played regular-season games in Mexico, in 1997, with the Houston Rockets.
James Harden, in 2014; Dirk Nowitzki and Russell Westbrook, in 2017; and Derrick Rose, in 2019, complete the list. Harden was not yet MVP when he played in Mexico; he won the award in 2018.
The count does not include preseason games, in which award winners such as Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson and Tim Duncan also played.
In 2014, Jokić was a second-round pick who went unnoticed by almost the entire league. Twelve years later, he will arrive in Mexico as the center who, without relying on strength or rebounding, led his team to a championship through passing.
