NEARING THE END of the NBA off-season this past September and over 5,000 miles from his adopted home of Denver, Nikola Jokic was playing alongside his Serbian national teammates in the EuroBasket tournament when a familiar face took a seat in the O2 Arena in Prague. Jokic thought he was still weeks away from reuniting with his peers on the Nuggets, but one teammate wanted to get a head start on rekindling his connection with the two-time reigning MVP.

Forward Aaron Gordon took time during his European vacation to surprise Jokic, and he brought his mom along to boot

“I just wanted to let him know that he got a brother, no matter where he is in the world,” Gordon told ESPN. “After he’s done playing basketball and disappears, I’ll still be able to pull up on him.”

“Yeah, I don’t know about that,” Jokic told ESPN, a boyish grin spread across his face.

Jokic prides himself in his ability to disappear off the grid. But then again, he hasn’t had a teammate try and find him across the globe before.

The two quickly bonded in Gordon’s two-plus seasons in Denver. Jokic admits Gordon isn’t the personality he thought he was when they first met in 2021. Jokic described Gordon “as a guy who is kind of quiet.” Jokic is too, so at first, there wasn’t much to talk about.

But, sitting just two lockers away from each other, they built a friendship.

“I just really love to talk with him,” Jokic said. “He’s a really interesting guy.”

Their conversations largely have nothing to do with basketball. But, as much as their friendship off the court has blossomed, their connection on the court has skyrockete

When the Nuggets traded for Gordon, they were acquiring a player they thought would develop an elite two-man game with Jokic. But not even the Nuggets thought the pairing would become what it is this season: statistically one of the most dominant duos in the league.

“I think we’ve learned just by playing,” Jokic said. “He is accepting a role to be less of a ball-handler. His way of changing his game has helped us a lot.”