“Unprecedented player”: Nikola Jokic’s 17-inch measured vertical from 2014 leaves NBA fans flabbergasted
Nikola Jokic's 17-inch vertical statistic during draft left fans bewildered about superstar development of the Nuggets star.
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Nikola Jokic's uncanny 2014 stat leaves fans confused
Nikola Jokic is a 3x league MVP, the 2023 NBA Finals MVP and an NBA Champion. Those numbers are good enough to lock him into the Basketball Hall of Fame already, yet somehow he keeps getting better. The funny part, however, is that nobody had ever expected Jokic to develop into a solid rotational player in the NBA, let alone a superstar. A major reason for this was the unflattering draft measurements of the Serbian star.
Most of the intangibles and passing chops that Nikola Jokic displays at the moment had already shown signs during his early days. However, the primary concern for most teams interested in the Serbian big man was his severely underwhelming physical capabilities. According to a report by The Athletic, Jokic had recorded a vertical leap of just 17 inches during his pre-draft workouts.
“When Jokic attempted a vertical leap, he jumped 17 inches. It was, according to P3, the worst vertical jump they had ever recorded.”
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Marcus Elliott, a sports scientist and the founder of the P3 Peak Performance Project training lab in Santa Barbara, revealed that Jokic had attended a pre-draft workout at the facility. During his regular athletic performance measurements, Jokic would record a vertical leap of just 17 inches, the lowest on record for Elliott at the time.
While his dominance on the court certainly does not rely on his traditional athletic prowess, it is wild to think of a nearly 7-foot-tall Serbian big man having the elevation of a middle-aged retired hooper dominating the entire NBA. Due to some of these concerns, Nikola Jokic would fall to the 42nd pick in the 2nd round of the 2014 NBA Draft, a decision that still haunts 29 other teams in the NBA.
Nikola Jokic’s record-breaking vertical leap leaves fans stunned
Nikola Jokic’s 17-inch vertical is record-breaking for all the wrong reasons. For starters, it would be the lowest vertical jump of any league MVP ever. But even with these limitations, Jokic has cemented himself as perhaps the best player in the league at the moment and one of the greatest offensive players ever. So it was understandable why fans found his uncanny vertical leaping abilities hard to digest.
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Nearly a decade after he was drafted, it is definitely safe to say that Nikola Jokic’s vertical leap is not the same as a middle-aged lifetime fitness basketball player anymore. Years of training in the league have certainly done a lot to help his athleticism grow into his massive body.
However, Jokic still isn’t the athletic specimen one would think would likely dominate the NBA the way he does. But if there’s one thing Woody Harrelson has taught us, white men may not be able to jump, but they sure can put a ball through a hoop.
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Armaan Gupta
(385 Articles Published)