Joffrey Lauvergne, former teammate of Nikola Jokic and current member of Asvel, spoke about the Serbian center for Mozzart Sport.
The two of them spent a certain period of time as teammates in the Denver Nuggets. Nikola Jokic was then a rookie, and it was necessary for someone to help him adjust to the novelties of the NBA. The French center shared an interesting anecdote from that period.
“When you’re in the NBA, you always travel by private plane, and the crew is always the same. We’re always greeted by the same people. Among them was a girl. I can’t describe to you how beautiful she was. Like from a music video or a movie. Unbelievable, I remember her after all these years. And when you have such a girl and a plane full of basketball players who are somewhat unprofessional, you can imagine the scenes.
There wasn’t a player in the team at the time who didn’t approach her, try something. Flirting, asking for her phone number. No one could win her over. Nikola was there too, but in a completely different style. Everything easygoing, indirect, making jokes. Teasing. He hadn’t even approached her directly yet, but he was always joking. Obviously, she liked that because he was different. After one flight, we land in Denver, and she approaches someone for the first time, comes up to Nikola, gives him a piece of paper with her phone number. The whole team in shock.
Nikola calmly gets up from the plane and comes to me. We had already established a rhythm that I would drive him from the airport. A few minutes of driving passed without conversation, and then he suddenly turns to me: ‘Hey, here’s this number, I don’t need it anyway. I have a girlfriend.’ I’m amazed and tell him I don’t want the number because she gave it to him. He just opens the window and throws the piece of paper with the number away. That’s Nikola Jokic. Always cool-headed, and also a sign that he’s a true family man. That’s a scene I’ll always remember with Jokic,” Joffrey Lauvergne said in an interview for Mozzart Sport.