• Nikola Jokic is the lowest-drafted participant to ever win NBA MVP, and he is carried out it twice.
• When Jokic was taken forty first total in 2014, ESPN was displaying a Taco Bell industrial.
• Jokic got here to the NBA in 2015 and is now the most effective all-around gamers within the league.

When the Denver Nuggets drafted Nikola Jokic within the second spherical of the 2014 draft, few may have predicted he would sooner or later be the NBA’s MVP and arguably its finest all-around participant.

The 28-year-old Serbian heart has taken residence the NBA’s Michael Jordan Trophy twice. Drafted forty first in 2014, Jokic is the lowest-picked participant to win NBA MVP.

Now he has the Nuggets on the verge of their first championship. 

It has been a shocking rise for Jokic, who was such a little-known prospect again in 2014 that when he was drafted, ESPN did not even point out the decide — a Taco Bell advert performed over it.

—The Affiliation (@affiliation) June 8, 2021

Many second-round picks get this therapy — it stands in stark distinction to the played-out bulletins of the highest choices, which regularly take a number of minutes and embody spotlight packages, interviews, and evaluation from draft consultants.

Jokic didn’t instantly come to the NBA upon getting drafted. He remained abroad for another 12 months and would have stayed longer to play professionally in Spain till FC Barcelona reportedly backed out of signing him.

Jokic then got here to the NBA in 2015 and shortly established himself as one of many NBA’s most original gamers.

NBA groups are fortunate if a second-round decide turns into a constant position participant. Few may ever dream {that a} prospect taken with the forty first total decide would turn out to be a franchise centerpiece and the most effective gamers within the NBA.