RIO DE JANEIRO — All the stars of the Dream Team came out. But, on this particular Friday night in Brazil, the best player on the floor was not Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving or Carmelo Anthony.
It was Nikola Jokic, the 21-year-old Nuggets center playing for Serbia at the Olympics.
Jokic scored a game-high 25 points during a surprisingly competitive game that saw Serbia push Team USA to the buzzer, before falling 94-91. When his collection of NBA stars from America escaped with the victory, coach Mike Krzyzewski briefly interrupted his postgame news conference to ask a journalist from Colorado a question.