Auburn Tigers basketball coach Bruce Pearl is overly excited about the addition of Serbian forward Filip Jovic.
Excited enough to name-drop another Serbian hoops star who has gone on to become the best player in the NBA and a perennial MVP snub any season he isn't given the award: Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic.
“We are excited about Filip’s decision to trust Auburn and come to this country to work on his dream of playing at the highest level,” Pearl said. “Since he was 16 years old, he has trained with and competed against the best in Europe.
“Filip comes to us from KK Mega Basket which has been one of the best development programs in all of Europe with 15 NBA Draft picks since 2013 including Nikola Jokić. Having graduated one of the best frontlines in the history of Auburn Basketball – Johni Broome, Dylan Cardwell and Chaney Johnson – Filip sees the opportunity and the Auburn Family is truly excited.”
Because Jokic came out of nowhere to become an all-time great, saying Pearl's claim is egregious would be exactly that.
Pearl has adapted to the NIL era, but adding an international star like Jovic is a different level of getting with it. It's a stroke of genius out of Illinois Fighting Illini basketball coach Brad Underwood's playbook after seeing success with Kasparas Jakucionis during the 2024-25 season.
There's no reason why Pearl can't unearth the next NBA draft first-rounder; which coincidentally, Jokic wasn't in 2014.