Nikola Jokic is a two-time Kia NBA MVP, but racing horses fulfills his passion like no other sport can.
Not long after Nikola Jokic arrived in the NBA and showed the unique skills that put him on the pathway to all-time greatness, he aggressively sought those who could help raise his game.
So he connected with a 5-foot-9 guy in New Jersey, just outside Philadelphia, who never made a dime playing or coaching hoops.
Wait. Do you think this is about basketball?
As previously mentioned, this is about Jokic’s game. That would be racing and training horses.
Basketball’s his job. But horses? That belongs to his heart and soul. That’s where he’s at peace. And that led him to dial up a harness driver who, at first, thought this was a joke. No, just the Joker.
“I was kind of shocked, to be honest,” Tim Tetrick said. “I was like, ‘What does the best basketball player in the world want to talk to me for, you know?’ But then I learned about his passion for what I do. We connected and became great friends, to this day. It’s kinda cool.”
Actually, it was Jokic who was star-struck. Tetrick (pronounced TEE-trick) is a legend in harness racing, a Hall of Famer, seventh all-time in wins (over 13,000) and third in earnings (approaching $270 million).
The first time they met, game recognized game.
“You a superstar,” Jokic told him. “You a superstar.”
Whenever the Nuggets visit Philadelphia, as they’ll do Tuesday for a tip with the Sixers (7:30 ET, TNT), guess which activity Jokic most looks forward to doing: visiting the stables and the tracks in Jersey with Tetrick, or arm-wrestling Joel Embiid over rebounds and another Kia MVP trophy?
Hoops + horses = Happiness
Jokic’s well-known passion for horses runs deep in his blood, much like golf consumes Stephen Curry. Jokic owns several steeds and operates a stable back home in Serbia. In the offseason he’s more likely to be on the track or the trails of his massive property than in the gym, squeezing his 6-foot-11, 284-pound frame in a harness.
A scene that captured the essence of the man occurred in 2022, when Jokic returned from a day on the trail. With a horse towing him into his driveway in Serbia, coach Michael Malone and other members of the Nuggets were waiting outside, eager to surprise him with the MVP trophy.
Unwilling to confine his passion to the summer months, Jokic wanted to tap into the racing community in the U.S., where he spends most of the year with the Nuggets. And that led him to Tetrick … and another kind of home.
It’s no secret that Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic enjoys horses (Photo via Tim Tetrick).
Whenever he is amongst these men — and keep in mind, many of these riders are roughly two feet shorter and over a hundred pounds lighter than him — Jokic is anxious to blend in. It of course makes for quite a sight.
He’s in their element and his element, soaking as much knowledge as possible from the trainers and drivers, speaking the language (of horses, not Serbian) and connecting with fast and powerful four-legged creatures.
John Campbell, considered the Michael Jordan or LeBron James (your pick) of North American harness drivers, once spent time with Jokic in Stockholm, Sweden at Elitloppet, the annual top trotting event. And he noticed Jokic was a kid unleashed at Disney World.
“He was out there warming up the horses,” Campbell said. “I got to chat with him later in the day. He lights up when he’s talking horses. They’re addictive. People who spend time with them are drawn to them. You learn to love them.”
There are different kinds of disciples in horse racing. Jokic is into harness racing, which goes back centuries, where the horses (Standardbreds) trot, or run at a pace, pulling one driver in a two-wheeled chariot. It’s big in Europe. Once he caught the bug, his time was split between horses and hoops.
“They’re magnificent animals,” Tetrick said. “We get to watch them race on the track and I think me and Joker both appreciate that these horses are different than thoroughbreds. Just a really nice animal. We like being around them.”
A big influence at 5-foot-9
Tetrick comes from a horse family — his father was in the business on the family farm in rural Illinois. Coincidently, Tetrick grew up during the Chicago Bulls’ dynasty and much like Jokic adopted a pair of passions.
“I was a Jordan and [Scottie] Pippen guy,” he said. “Loved those teams. Made me a big basketball fan.”
He was smart enough to choose the right profession. His size had something to do with that. Tetrick became a four-time driver of the year by the US Harness Writers Association, an in-demand driver among trainers, and won the 2012 Hambletonian (the Kentucky Derby of harness racing).
“Timmy has an innate ability to drive horses, his sense of timing, sense of pace, ability to figure out what your horse is capable of,” Campbell said. “He’s a great ambassador for our sport and will go down as one of the greats.”
Tim Tetrick (left) and Nikola Jokic have built a unique friendship. (Photo via Tim Tetrick)
Almost at the same time, halfway around the globe, Jokic chose basketball over racing, and size had something to do with that, too.
“He would never be able to race professionally, obviously,” Tetrick said. “Most of our guys are 5-9 and (range from)150 to 155 pounds. Be hard for him to compete at a high level. Hey, I’m 5-9, how am I going to play in the NBA?”
Their shared interest erased all physical differences between them, though.
“I liked basketball and he liked horses. It led to a friendship,” Tetrick said.
They’ve spent time at each other’s homes. Jokic will pick him up at the airport in Denver, and the NBA superstar “has hugged my kids like 100 times,” Tetrick said. One problem: Both are looking for an escape from their professional jobs.
“He always gets mad at me. He says, ‘I don’t want to talk about basketball.’ And I say, ‘I don’t want to talk about horses. So we’re going to have to meet in the middle here.’ We laugh about that,” Tetrick said.
Jokic usually wins. And so, when the NBA schedule allows, the two will drive for hours along the Jersey Turnpike and hit all the big farms, and the Meadowlands track in North Jersey and Yonkers in New York.
At first, when a famous 7-footer ducked inside a room full of horse people or hit the stables, heads turned and fingers pointed. But now, seeing Jokic show up and mingle doesn’t bring the same level of shock as before. The race community knows and embraces him.
“What’s amazing is how super nice he is to everybody,” Tetrick said. “Takes pictures, says hi. I think he likes being around the horse people. He seems to be more of a horse person than in the basketball world, at least to me.”
Some context is necessary: Jokic couldn’t become a two-time MVP and already one of the best centers in history without the love of basketball. Tetrick saw that last summer when Jokic triple-doubled his way through the postseason and raised the championship trophy.
“I was super happy for him,” he said. “I thought he worked really hard to do it and got the job done.”
A student of the ‘game’
When time allows, Jokic makes a point to watch Tetrick in his element. A night at the track is well-spent for someone who’s Tetrick’s biggest fan.
“I took him to Dover Downs and I wasn’t having a good night,” Tetrick said. “The first six races I didn’t win any of them. And he goes, ‘Tim, how come when you come to the games, I win, and when you bring me to the races, you stink?’ He’d say it right in front of all the drivers.”
Tetrick doesn’t lose often. And the big winner is their relationship. Tetrick and family will be at the game Tuesday to get his basketball fix — the Nuggets only appear once a season in Philly.
Perhaps they’ll talk horses as well.
As Tetrick says, “his passion is horses and his job is basketball.” One of harness racing’s biggest winners, a horseman his entire life, sees the signs and knows where this is going:
“Every time I take him to some of the bigger trainers in the game he wants to go to the farm, he wants to see the horses’ feed, he wants to watch how they train. Joker is writing this stuff down in his head so he can use it later in life. He’s going to be a horse trainer when he gets done playing.”
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Shaun Powell has covered the NBA for more than 25 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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