Nikola Jokic Made History With LeBron James At Paris Olympics

Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic knew he had to step up big time for Serbia to get a podium finish at the 2024 Olympics, and that's exactly what he did against Germany in the bronze medal game.

The Joker finished with 19 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists to lead Serbia to a 93-83 victory over Germany on Saturday. In the process, Jokic recorded just the fifth triple-double in Olympic history.

Jokic is also just the fourth player to do so, joining LeBron James (who did it twice in 2012 and this 2024), Luka Doncic (2016) and Alexander Belov (1976).

Making things more interesting, James actually secured the fourth triple-double in Olympic history against Jokic and the Serbians in the semifinals. In that game—which saw Team USA beat Serbia 95-91 in an epic nail-biter—James dropped 16 points, 12 boards and 10 dimes.

Considering how rare such stat line is in international games, it's definitely quite incredible to see two athletes record a triple-double in the same Olympics for the first time ever.

Thanks to Jokic's historic performance, Serbia made its return to the men's basketball podium since winning silver at the 2016 Olympics. The Serbians also avenged their 2023 FIBA World Cup final loss to the Germans, who won 83-77 at the time.

Serbia left no doubt it is the better team this time around, leading by as much as 19 points in the third quarter. Franz Wagner had 19 points to lead Germany. Unfortunately for them, they just had no answer for Jokic.

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