According To DeMarcus Cousins, Nikola Jokic Considered Retiring From The NBA In 2022 To Go Be With His Horses

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It's not exactly a secret that Nikola Jokic loves horses. Every offseason, we get clips of him being back home in Serbia and losing his mind while watching his horse win races. Immediately after the Nuggets won the 2023 title, Jokic was on TV freaking out about when the championship parade was going to be because he had to fly home for a horse race. He's accepted his MVP trophy while in the stables. It's as much a part of Jokic as anything else.

Often times that can be confused with Jokic "not caring" about basketball, and I'd push back on that. To me, Nikola Jokic is a fierce competitor when it comes to basketball. You don't turn into the type of player he is without giving a shit. I just don't think Jokic wants any of the bullshit that comes with the NBA. He cares about winning, not being "famous" or whatever. Basketball may not be the most important thing in his life, but he seems to be doing pretty well so I'm thinking the life balance he has works for him.

Now, imagine a world where everything we've seen from Jokic since 2022 never happened? For those not keeping track at home, that'd be his 3rd MVP and 1st NBA title/Finals MVP. Sounds crazy right? Not according to Boogie

For context, Jokic was in the final year of his 5/147M extension in the 2021-22 season, a year in which he won his 2nd MVP. That $300M Boogie is referencing is Jokic's current supermax extension (5/276M), which he is now in Year 3 of. As you may have heard earlier this summer, Jokic has decided not to extend early this summer so he could extend next summer for over $300M. So, aside from eventually winning his first-ever title and another MVP, Jokic's decision not to retire is also about to net him an additional $600M. Not bad!

Part of me thinks Boogie didn't pick up on the joke and that Jokic was never going to retire, but it also is not going to shock me when Jokic decides one day to pack things up and head back to Serbia full time. He's absolutely the type of NBA superstar who is going to retire and then never be heard from again. Think of it like Tim Duncan x10000. When that time does come, you bet your ass it's going to be so Jokic can go spend time with his horses, so that part of the story I buy. Jokic has accomplished pretty much everything there is to accomplish at the NBA level. His place among the greats is already stamped, it's really more of a question of just how high he can climb. We as fans may care about that, but something tells me Jokic does not give a shit where you consider him in terms of the greatest players ever. Top 20? Top 15? It's all the same to him, I imagine. 

What's fun to think about is what the rest of the West/NBA would look like had Jokic shockingly stepped away in 2022 after completing his age 26 season. That would have been objectively insane considering those weren't even his NBA prime years yet! At that point, do the Nuggets give massive extensions to Murray/MPJ? Do the Lakers finally get back to another Finals since the Bubble? Does Embiid or Giannis have more MVPs? The Nuggets most definitely are still searching for their first ever title as a franchise, so is it possible that if another team in the West made the Finals in 2023 instead, that maybe the Heat pull it off and Jimmy Butler would have had a ring? The butterfly effect from Jokic suddenly retiring would have been crazy, which makes it a pretty great NBA "what if". Thankfully, as someone who very much enjoys watching Nikola Jokic play professional basketball, he decided to stick around

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Fast forward to 2025-26, and Nikola Jokic finds himself in a similar position. Now he's made even more money and racked up even more accomplishments, and there'd be nothing wrong with hopping on his horse and riding off into the sunset. This time around though, he's not just looking at another $300M guaranteed, he also has the best supporting cast in terms of talent and versatility that we've seen from the Nuggets since their 2023 title team. They have as great a shot as any contender to get back to the top of the mountain next season, I mean hell, they nearly did it this past Spring if not for two devastating injuries to Aaron Gordon and MPJ. 

So while I don't completely buy that Jokic was legitimately about to walk away in 2022, I do buy that when it eventually happens, it's going to be the reasons that Boogie shared in that clip. He'll just be $300M (or more) richer, probably have a few more MVPs to his name, and possibly another title. 

Not a bad gig if you can swing it.