1. Joviu0107 was born in Leicester, England. His father, Ilija Jovic, was playing basketball there. When Nikola was nine years old, the family moved to Belgrade where Nikola first trained in water polo. He didn’t begin playing basketball seriously until he was 13 and originally played guard before a growth spurt took him to just under 6-foot-11. At 19 years and 14 days old as of the night of the draft, Pat Riley called him “one of the youngest players we’ve ever drafted”.
“Anybody we were going to draft was probably going to be a development player or a younger player,” Riley said.