DeMarcus Cousins shares a crazy story about Nikola Jokic

Nikola Jokic considered retiring before a signing a five-year contract extension with the Denver Nuggets, according to his former teammate DeMarcus Cousins

By Johnny Askounis/ [email protected]

What if Nikola Jokic retired after the 2022-23 season, skipping a five-year supermax contract extension with the Denver Nuggets?

DeMarcus Cousins, his teammate down the stretch of the 2021-22 campaign, recalled a conversation with the Joker considering retiring to ‘lay in a valley’ with his horses.

“If you ever get a chance to just hold a conversation with him, and he tells you a little bit about himself, he really doesn’t give a f…k about this s…t. He doesn’t care. At all,” mentioned Cousins during an appearance on the Straight Game Podcast, describing his view on the approach of Jokic to basketball, “This is like his second or third favorite thing to do. Maybe third or fourth. Most games, when he’s dropping these crazy stats, he probably doesn’t even want to be there. And that’s the scary part about all of it.”

“When I was with Denver, our lockers were next to each other,” added the 34-year-old center, “And I don’t remember who at the time had signed an extension, but I’m like, ‘Such and such signed for this money, yours is going to be crazy.’ He was like, ‘You know, Cous, I honestly think I might retire after this contract.’ I said, ‘Leave $300 million on the table? Man, you’re out of your motherf…king mind man.’ I said, ‘Sign the contract and just get fat at worst, don’t pass up on the $300 million, bro.’”

The Serbian superstar indeed re-signed in 2022 and led the Nuggets to the first NBA championship in franchise history. He was named Most Valuable Player of the Finals 2023. In the 2023-24 journey, he earned a season MVP award for the third time in his career.

The aforementioned contrast is guaranteed until the end of the 2026-27 season and also includes a player option for the 2027-28 season.

Before the upcoming 11th year with the Nuggets and the 2025-26 NBA Regular Season, Jokic will play for Serbia in the EuroBasket 2025.