Nikola Jokic on Nearly Signing with Barcelona: Why He’s Glad It Didn’t Happen
How the Barcelona move collapsed
Back in 2014, Barcelona sent people to Belgrade to watch a 19-year-old Nikola Jokic and seemed close to signing him. But after a single subpar game they decided to put the transfer on hold — and it never went through. Jokic later said he’s actually happy it didn’t work out that way, even if Barcelona is one of Europe’s biggest clubs.
Why it mattered — and how things turned out
From today’s perspective it’s easy to criticize that decision. Jokic has developed into one of the rare, generational centers: a former NBA champion who now puts up numbers around 29 points, 12.5 rebounds and 10.5 assists per game. Still, there’s a reasonable argument that, had he gone to Barcelona, his path might have looked very different — perhaps a longer, more gradual development in Europe instead of the route he took.
What this episode really shows is how unpredictable player development can be. Scouts and clubs make judgments based on limited glimpses, and sometimes a single off night can change the course of a career. For Jokic it obviously all worked out: he found his own way, grew into a superstar, and proved that scouting snapshots don’t always tell the whole story.
