Nikola Stojakovic is a former Division 1 Basketball player who played for Morehead State. We talk about his remarkable basketball journey from Serbia to D1 basketball in the US.
0:00 Intro
2:20 Nikola Tells Us About Developing As A Young Basketball Player In Serbia
6:40 Was Basketball The Original Sport Nikola Wanted To Excel At
9:15 Nikola Talks About His Former Team FNP and The Soon To Be Pro Players He Met
11:13 Teodosic and Aleksandar Pavlovic Were One Of The Best Players Nikola Played With Growing Up
16:38 Nikola Tells Us About The Politics Behind Basketball and His Road To The USA
24:23 Finishing Highschool, Writing American SAT’s and University Of UIC Offers
31:23 Moving To Illinois At 19 And Playing Basketball For A Community College
35:29 Nikola Talk About Some Of The Racism He Faced While Being In The States As A Serb
37:15 How Nikola Dealt With A Loss Of Confidence And Struggling To Rebuild
43:30 Moving From Community College Basketball To Division 1 Morehead State
48:00 When Nikola Went Back To Serbia He Partied For 25 days Straight and Gained 25 Pounds
51:30 Nikola Talks About How Different NCAA Basketball Is Structured For Players/Students
57:20 The Assistant Coach At Morehead State University Thought Nikola Was Going To Quit The Team
59:33 Nikola’s Back In Shape And Attending His First Year Playing Division 1 Basketball
1:07:48 Nikola Discusses His First Big Injury, A Sports Hernia While Continuing To Play
1:13:48 Nikola and His Final Year Of University Playing Basketball. Becoming 6th In All Time Assists
1:18:53 Nikola’s Thoughts On The Team During That Season And More Injuries
1:25:40 What Were Nikola’s Thoughts Coming Into His Final Year Of College Basketball And What Was He Going To Long Term
1:27:14 Did Nikola Make A Mistake Selecting His Agent?
1:30:36 What Almost Made Nikola Cry? Spain? Agent? Money?
1:36:56 Nikola Talks About His Experience In Romania
1:40:02 If Nikola Could Go Back In Time Was There Anything He Could Do To Alter His Basketball Career Path?
1:47:14 When Did Nikola’s Confidence Start To Suffer And When Did He Fall Out Of Love With Basketball
1:48:42 What Did Nikola Do After He Retired From Professional Basketball And Does He Miss Basketball
1:53:35 Outro
