Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic were reunited during All-Star Weekend, and as good friends tend to do, they took the opportunity to poke fun at each other. At one point, Jokic was talking to Pascal Siakam in the Team World locker room when Doncic walked in, and he claimed the Slovenian is quite the gambler.
“You know why Luka follow everything?” Jokic said. “Because he bets on everything.”
Siakam started laughing while a puzzled Doncic had a priceless expression on his face.
“You know why Luka follow everything? Because he bets on everything”
Nikola calls Luka a gambler 😂😭
IG/ pskills43 pic.twitter.com/DUryDW7KLW
— Luka Updates (@LukaUpdates) February 16, 2026
Jokic was almost certainly just messing around there. Doncic has never really spoken about having any sort of love for gambling. The 26-year-old also hasn’t tied up with the likes of DraftKings and FanDuel the way that some American superstars have.
In fact, Jokic has more ties to betting than Doncic. He is a brand ambassador for Superbet’s operations in the Serbian market. We also saw Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo announce he has become a shareholder in Kalshi, a prediction market platform, but Doncic looks to be staying out of this business. That’s a good decision on his part.
Getting back to the trolling, that didn’t stop once these two were on the court. With the crowd in the Wall section at the Intuit Dome chanting “flopper” at Doncic, he hilariously pointed to Jokic being the one deserving of that title.
As for the All-Star Games, we didn’t see much of Doncic and Jokic in them. They both played just five minutes each in the Team World’s 37-35 loss to Team USA Stars. Doncic scored two points in the contest, while Jokic went scoreless, and that was that. Neither would play in the Team World’s second game, a 48-45 loss to Team USA Stripes.
Kevin Durant had previously called out Doncic and Jokic for not taking the All-Star Game seriously, and they certainly didn’t silence their critics. To be fair to them, they both have missed time with injury recently. It wouldn’t make much sense to push themselves for exhibition games. They both want to win the championship this year and will be looking to lead the push for their respective teams in the second half of the campaign.
Doncic is averaging 32.8 points, 7.8 rebounds, 8.6 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2025-26. He is the league’s leading scorer and is a strong MVP candidate.
Jokic, meanwhile, is putting up 28.7 points, 12.3 rebounds, 10.7 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game for the Denver Nuggets in 2025-26. He is the league leader in rebounds and assists, but it’s unlikely he wins his fourth MVP award this season. Jokic has missed 16 games this season, and if he misses two more, he’ll be ineligible for end-of-season awards and honors due to the 65-game rule.
