{"id":304044,"date":"2023-06-04T23:47:03","date_gmt":"2023-06-04T23:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=304044"},"modified":"2023-06-04T23:58:07","modified_gmt":"2023-06-04T23:58:07","slug":"nikola-jokics-agent-discovered-center-in-serbian-newspaper-signed-him-without-seeing-him-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=304044","title":{"rendered":"Nikola Jokic&#039;s agent discovered center in Serbian newspaper, signed him without seeing him play"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nikola Jokic flight path from under-the-radar second-round draft pick to two-time MVP is well-documented, complete with a Taco Bell commercial. But even when he was a youth player putting up gaudy numbers, major Serbian scouts were missing him.<\/p>\n<p>Jokic&#8217;s agent, Misko Raznatovic, joined the <em>All The Smoke\u00a0<\/em>podcast to discuss the star center now competing in the NBA Finals for his first championship. Raznatovic said he discovered Jokic by reading a newspaper and then signed him without actually watching him play.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Jokic was 17 years old and playing in a U-18 Serbian league. The newspaper excerpt caught Raznatovic&#8217;s attention \u2013 Jokic had 29 points and 26 rebounds, &#8220;if I&#8217;m not wrong,&#8221; Raznatovic said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I said &#8216;Wow,&#8217; \u2014 Not more than that,&#8221; the agent said, explaining that he didn&#8217;t think a whole lot of it in the moment.<\/p>\n<p>The following weekend he decided to go check that young player&#8217;s stats again.<\/p>\n<p>In the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/shobasketball\/status\/1665430984475525127\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">podcast video<\/a>, Raznatovic made a shocked, wide-eyed reaction as if he remembered his exact expression. There&#8217;s a good chance he did, to be honest. Jokic had 30 points and 15 rebounds, if Raznatovic remembers correctly.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Joker been putting up video game numbers since the beginning<img src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/14.0.0\/72x72\/1f0cf.png\" alt=\"\ud83c\udccf\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em;max-height: 1em\" \/>.<\/p>\n<p>His agent Misko Raznatovic explains how he discovered Joki\u0107 by reading a Serbian newspaper.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ATSCroatiaTakeover?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ATSCroatiaTakeover<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nBTEoaYgEI\">pic.twitter.com\/nBTEoaYgEI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; SHOWTIME Basketball (@shobasketball) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/shobasketball\/status\/1665430984475525127?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 4, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Raznatovic called his scout to ask about Jokic \u2014 &#8220;and it&#8217;s a silence. He didn&#8217;t know him.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;That was the surprise of the year, having in mind that he knows all the kids,&#8221; Raznatovic recalled.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The agent instructed the scout to find out whether Jokic was putting up these numbers because he was big\u2014 or skilled and versatile. The scout called back a few minutes later, confirming that Jokic wasn&#8217;t simply stronger or older, but good.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;Very versatile, even a little overweight, sneaky but he&#8217;s talented.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Raznatovic told the scout to reach out and sign him. It was unusual for the agent, who described himself as analytical and trusting in systems, but this time, he went with a gut feeling for a rather spontaneous signing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;This is the first and last player in the 27-year-old history of the agency that we signed him without anybody seeing him,&#8221; Raznatovic said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Watch the\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/shobasketball\/status\/1665430984475525127\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">full clip above; it&#8217;s<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0much more captivating than the written description. Listen to the\u00a0<\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">All the Smoke<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0podcast\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sho.com\/sports\/podcasts\/all-the-smoke\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">here<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>More stories:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/usatodayhss.com\/2023\/michael-porter-jr-jokes-trae-young-brandon-roy-are-jealous-hes-in-finals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Porter Jr. jokes Trae Young, Brandon Roy are &#8216;jealous&#8217; he&#8217;s in Finals<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/usatodayhss.com\/2023\/noble-haskell-paralyzed-teen-walks-during-high-school-graduation-to-receive-diploma\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paralyzed student takes inspiring steps during high school graduation to receive diploma<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Nikola Jokic was unsigned at 17 years old. An agent saw his stats in the newspaper, made a couple calls, and signed him without watching (&#8230;)<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":286601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=304044"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304046,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304044\/revisions\/304046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/286601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=304044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=304044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=304044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}