Glory days for Jokers from Serbia

It’s difficult to watch something happen 23 times and believe in its spontaneity. Novak Djokovic notched the final point of the men’s final at the French Open on Sunday and immediately fell on his back, in patented exultation. He looked up, as if to search for equals or even rivals. He could have stayed there all night.

Djokovic has earned his repose because he contnues to rush through the tape of history. He did not stumble to his 23rd Grand Slam victory, which broke Rafael Nadal’s men’s record and tied Serena Williams overall. He beat Caspar Ruud in straight sets, two days after he split two sets of bitter brilliance with Carlos Alcaraz in a semifinal that had West Coasters rising at 5:30 a.m. and wondering where to find Tennis Channel. Alcaraz, 20, then fell victim to cramping, as he had done in Miami in a loss to Jannik Sinner, and Djokovic won in four sets and replaced Alcaraz as the world’s No. 1.

The Big Three is gone. Roger Federer has retired and Nadal, for whom a court will undoubtedly be named at Roland Garros someday, has said 2024 is his end date. Djokovic is 36 and getting younger, like Tom Brady, who watched the proceedings from the Djokovic box on Sunday. His rivalry with Alcaraz will be the lifeblood of the men’s game over the next years, but Alcaraz has some physical kinks to solve. The only thing that has stopped Djokovic is his own mulish resistance to sampling the Covid-19 vaccine. Had he won the 2022 Australian and U.S. Opens that barred him, he would have 25 Slams, including 13 of the past 20.

Federer defeated Djokovic at the 2007 U.S. Open. They met in four other Slam finals and Djokovic won them all. The only other players to defeat Djokovic in a Slam final are Nadal, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Danill Medvedev. Djokovic has beaten nine other players in finals, and has won at least one Slam in every year but once since 2010.

Remember, the Slams are an elevated form of competition, much more distinctive than the majors in golf. They are decided in best-of-five sets, on wildly varying surfaces, often in merciless heat. Djokovic has won the last three in which he has played. Sunday’s win gave him at least three titles in every Slam, another first.

“Either he plays ridiculous defense or he hits beautiful winners,” Ruud said. “Yeah, it’s annoying. But it’s very, very impressive.”

As Chuck Culpepper of the Washington Post pointed out, Djokovic won 21 of 23 sets during the tournament and was 6-0 in tiebreaks. In those tiebreaks, he had no unforced errors. So perhaps his occasional tantrums, which come and go like the odd winter hailstorm, are welcome. They connote the existence of flesh and blood, in lieu of any other evidence.

Djokovic does not share his celestial space with anyone else. But he is a Serbian first, and he texted Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets for getting to within one victory of the NBA championship. Denver leads Miami 3-1 and plays Game 5 at 5,280 feet Monday night.

“He texted me for real,” Jokic said. “That he represents us in the world is a great honor. He’s the guy that represents Serbia in a much bigger scene. He’s the Serbian ambassador. He’s the idol to the kids in Serbia not only because of his tennis but for the things his foundation is doing. I want to be like him.”

Serbia is a nation of 6.8 million, a number that is shrinking, thanks to a low birth rate, an aging population and the aftereffects of wars fought in the 90s. Djokovic and Jokic aren’t just celebrities. They are points of pride, champions who still identify strongly as Serbians and still live there, and they are change agents when it comes to the stubborn work of image repair.

Jokic is a two-time MVP who would be known as a revolutionary figure if there was any worthy torch-bearer to follow him. In the playoffs he is averaging 30.1 points, 13.3 rebounds and 9.8 assists, and is shooting 46.6 percent from the 3-point line. His dribble-handoff game with Jamal Murray has been a mystery for most teams, including the Heat, which can’t score enough to combat Denver’s efficiency. In all three wins, Denver has held the Heat under 100 points.

Jokic is also a 1-man repudiation of the way Americans develop, or fail to develop, their basketball talent. In fairness, there are no other Jokics in Europe either, but there is much to learn from his game that won’t be learned by those in the AAU or college basketball systems. Although Jokic plays with his feet resolutely on the ground, he seems to get anywhere he wants on the court, and his unerring hands deliver the basketball so quietly in the lane that it can’t help but fall, as if the hoop was a funnel. His final resort is the 3-pointer, which he can hit from deep space. Jokic also is playing 39.3 minutes per playoff game, which invalidates the assumption that he isn’t “athletic,” a miscalculation that is voiced only by those who think “athleticism” is a function of hang time.

The only way to really deter Jokic is to make him play defense and get him in foul trouble, a lofty and mythical goal. He averages 3.5 fouls in the playoffs and was in jeopardy only once in the Finals, during Game 4. Denver held the fort while he was gone, getting a boost from power forward Aaron Gordon, who was talented enough to be the fourth pick in the 2015 draft, by Orlando. The Magic traded him to Denver to get an aging Gary Harris.

Keyboardists have been spraining their wrists trying to find a historical parallel for Jokic. Those who are watching ESPN’s latest 30 for 30 can see Bill Walton doing some of the same things, although he wasn’t the shooter Jokic is but was a far better defender. Dave Cowens was an innovator in moving the center’s influence out onto the floor. Arvydas Sabonis, the great Soviet center who played strongly for the Portland TrailBlazers, was a precusor to Jokic in some ways, but wasn’t as versatile.

Jokic owns a Serbian basketball team, called KK Joker, in his hometown of Sombor, population 41,000. KK Joker won its way into the top division of the Serbian League this year. Jokic’s father runs the team, which is holding watch parties for NBA Finals games. Typically there’s a DJ who begins cranking it up well before tipoff, but there are few celebrations when Denver’s victories end, primarily because it’s 5 a.m. at that point.

Then again, nobody wants to sleep through a minute of Joker Season.