After Nikola Jokic was drafted by the Nuggets, his wife Natalija not only accompanied him to the United States, but she also competed in college volleyball.
The NBA Most Valuable Player awards and the NBA Championship are further evidence that Nikola Jokic, the Denver Nuggets centre and NBA All-Star, is arguably the most distinctive player in basketball.
In recent seasons, the Serbian basketball player has achieved legendary status, surpassing levels not observed since the eras of Shaquille O’Neal and Michael Jordan. Any NBA team would be fortunate to claim Nikola Jokic as their own; however, his wife already enjoys that privilege.
Although he is a legitimate MVP candidate each season, he has already captured one of the most significant prizes in life: love.
Nikola Jokic’s Wife Natalija Macesic is His High School Sweetheart
During the epidemic, Jokic wed his longtime partner Natalija Macesic, with whom he is raising a small child.
Natalija Macesic, the wife of NBA player Nikola Jokic, has been dating him since 2013. They will get married in 2020. The couple managed to tie the knot in a modest ceremony in Macesic and Jokic’s birthplace of Sombor, Serbia, despite the COVID-19 pandemic delaying their wedding, according to Eurohoops.
Jokic told Bleacher Report that he advised Macesic, his high school sweetheart, to cheat when playing cards with his brothers Nemanja and Strahinja.
Macesic, before becoming the wife of Nikola Jokic, moved to the United States alongside her future husband and is a graduate of Metropolitan State University of Denver, where she earned a psychology degree. Her university campus was near the Pepsi Center, where Jokic plays for the Nuggets. Macesic was also a collegiate volleyball player for Seminole State College in Oklahoma before transferring to Metro State.
The pair met for the first time in high school and have come a long way since then.
Since moving to the United States, she’s been by Jokic’s side, even traveling with the big man to London when the Nuggets played the Indiana Pacers overseas.
Macesic tends to keep her personal life under wraps. However, the couple in 2021 did announce the birth of their first child, Ognjena Jokic, giving fans a brief glimpse into the Jokic’s continuing love story.
Nikola Jokic’s career has been a wild ride thus far, and his wife has been by his side for all of it. He was selected in the second round of the 2014 NBA Draft by the Denver Nuggets and moved to the USA from Serbia a year later to join the team.
The Serbian professional basketball player impressed early on in his career as an NBA player, making the 2015-16 NBA All-Rookie Team. Jokic made his first All-Star team in 2018-19 after nearly averaging a triple-double with 20.1 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 7.3 assists per game.
Jokic has also played a pivotal role for the Serbian National Team, having featured for the squad and won a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.
The Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Nuggets in the semifinals of the 2019 NBA season. In 2020, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals. The 2023 NBA Playoffs have been a different story, though, as Jokic guided the Nuggets to the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat, who they beаt for Jokic’s first ring.
In the 2018 offseason, The Jоker agreed to a five-year, $147 million contract extension with the Nuggets, which will keep him in Denver until the 2022–2023 campaign. In 2022, he signed a $264 million, five-year deal. That contract immediately paid dividends, as he and teammate Jamal Murray led Denver through the 2023 postseason.
Jokic, however, is a two-time MVP Award winner, so it’s not out of the question that he could sign an offseason contract that would put him on par with Stephen Curry or Wardell.