Miami Heat’s Nikola Jovic gives entire world reason to love him

Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic has helped lead Team Serbia to the FIBA World Cup championship game.

Nikola Jovic had reason to celebrate, but it’s how he did it that earned headlines and attention.

After helping lead Serbia’s national team to the FIBA World Cup championship game with a 95-86 win over Team Canada on Friday morning, Jovic ran down the postgame tunnel and poked fun at Canada’s Dillon Brooks, the Houston Rockets forward whose pregame shadow boxing routine went viral on social media this week.

Jovic, selected by the Miami Heat with the 27th pick of last year’s draft, has played a starting role for Serbia’s run to Sunday’s championship game. In Friday morning’s victory over Canada, he finished with eight points on 4 for 4 shooting and one rebound.

Canada — a team loaded with NBA talents such as Brooks, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort and Kelly Olynyk — was considered one of the favorites to win the tournament.

Jovic, the 6-foot-11, 20-year-old forward, has been a standout on a talented Serbian roster that includes NBA player Bogdan Bogdanovic and several Serbian veterans. Jovic has averaged 10.3 points on 60.5% shooting (45.5% from 3-point range) through seven games of the tournament.

In the championship game, Jovic could face Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who is an assistant on Team USA’s coaching staff led by Warriors coach Steve Kerr. Team USA faces Germany in the semifinals on Friday morning.

Jovic, the lone Heat player competing in the World Cup, has been mentioned as a potential piece in a trade for Damian Lillard, who requested a trade from the Portland Trail Blazers in July. If he’s not included in a deal for Lillard, this strong World Cup showing could propel him to a better second NBA season after a back injury limited him to just 15 NBA games as a rookie.

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