Late last summer, Aleksandar Zigic was dining at a pizzeria in Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia, where it’s not unusual for him to be recognized by sports fans. As a U.S. correspondent for Serbia’s public broadcast network, he is one of the nation’s only media figures with regular access to its biggest basketball star.
But Zigic was particularly taken aback and amused when the manager of the restaurant, a man he’d never met before, interrupted his meal with a question.
“Why didn’t you persuade Nikola Jokic to go to the championship?”
Jokic had decided to sit out the 2023 FIBA World Cup, where Serbia won the silver medal.