Jokic: “I’ll Play for Serbia As Long As I Can”

Nikola Jokic sits across from Mile Ilic in the studio of the “Jao Mile” podcast, relaxed as if he were at home rather than sitting through an interview. The conversation turns to the national team, and without much hedging, he says what fans have been waiting to hear since he hung a bronze medal around his neck in Paris.

Guesting alongside former basketball player Mile Ilic, Jokic said:

“This year they made a new plan, the goal is for me to play for the national team for as long as I can, and I also want to have sneakers in our colors.”

The remark was prompted by the sneakers on his feet. Presenting a new model from the Chinese brand 361, the Serbian center explained why that particular color scheme was chosen. “It’s the color of the Serbian flag, that’s how they made it,” he said, adding that the previous model was no different, and that he had worn it while playing for the national team as well.

Three Outlets, Three Slightly Different Versions of the Same Quote

The statement about his plan to keep playing for Serbia was also carried by Sport Magazin and Mondo, though not word for word, which isn’t unusual when three newsrooms transcribe the same conversation independently. Mondo’s version read:

“And this year too, since the plan is for me to play for the national team as much as I can, the goal is for me to have sneakers in our colors.”

Sport Magazin reported it this way:

“This year they made a new plan, my goal is to play for the national team for as long as I can, I want to have sneakers in our colors.”

The substance is the same across all three versions, only the word order differs.

This year, at 31, Jokic has worn the national team’s captain’s armband since the summer, when he led the side through qualifiers for the 2027 World Cup in Qatar. Mondo’s report also notes that the conversation touched on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, the next big goal he appears to be seriously counting on, judging by his words.

Wearing the Serbia jersey, Jokic has won two Olympic medals so far, silver in Rio in 2016 and bronze in Paris in 2024. It was the latter he dwelled on most in the podcast, not through numbers from the court but through the scene that has stayed with him since he landed back in Belgrade.

“When we came out, I looked and people had climbed onto the roofs and were sitting up there. That’s why we’re a heavenly people too. It was truly a magical, unique experience and emotion, I can’t describe it, an indescribable feeling, when you see what you’ve done for such a large number of people,” Jokic said, describing the homecoming after Paris.

This isn’t the first time he has admitted how much such moments mean to him, but he rarely describes them this directly. For a man who has won everything there is to win in the NBA, a stadium full of people watching from rooftops stands out as a special memory, and that came through in the conversation.

Off the Court, Horses Remain a Constant

It’s well known that Jokic prefers to retreat to his estate during the offseason, and the podcast naturally turned to horses. “Every day I managed to go to the stable and be with the horses,” he said, describing it as a routine that means as much to him, he says, as basketball itself.

For Serbia’s national team, this is more than just another line from a podcast appearance. The captain has publicly settled the question of how much longer he’s staying, and the answer is for as long as his body allows. Qualifiers for Qatar 2027 continue, and with them the question of whether we’ll see Jokic at a third straight Olympics. Judging by this conversation, that’s exactly what he’s planning, in sneakers that carry those same colors on his feet too.