They Call Him the Next Nikola Jokić...Meet Illinois Star David Mirković

I'm not thinking about further future.

I'm just thinking about winning game by game and going there and win it all, you know.

Tell me a little bit about how your life has changed since coming to the States.

I would say everything got better here, not just basketball, I mean off the court it's, it's changed pretty a lot, you know.

I would say this is a place where most of the time I hit my head in the wall, you know, and then I had to rethink everything.

And I mean that's why I came here is the biggest reason is like just to learn to go to the other side of the world and see everything.

Just look at new challenges in the eyes.

Back home, what was the closest thing you've seen to what you wanted to be like, who are the guys you were looking at, like, maybe I can be like that one day.

Uh, I would say since I was a kid.

You know, there were like first public games I played when I was 13 and we had commentator, he like was calling me Jokic, like he didn't say my last name, like I reminded him so much of him.

And just growing up even before that, everyone compared me to him, but like I would say it's probably him and Luca the mostly, you know, we are similar build, similar bodies, you know, come from similar same region almost, and I would say those are the two guys that I looked up the most to.

When did the idea of playing college basketball here in the United States become real to you?

I would say it's pretty hard to to go to the NBA from overseas, you know, you really gotta be crazy good.

And since I started playing basketball, my dream is obviously to go to the league.

I would say just coming to college was a was a big step closer to the league and here I'm having better development, better resources, conditions to improve myself .

Who put the basketball in your hand?

It was my mum, she played professional basketball and I was just really tall, even though I didn't want that moment, but my mum basically forced me to play basketball, like she was convincing me that that basketball is my sport and I mean, she was right though.

You, you ever play some one on one with your mom?

So yeah, we played 2 times.

One time I was 8 and she beat me then, and I was convincing her to play again like for 4 or 5 years.

And she didn't want, and then we went to an individual workout together.

I was 13 and we played another time and she busted my ass, like I couldn't stop her, like she destroyed me and never played since then, but yeah.

I wanna hear a little bit about your tattoos.

I understand you had a, you had an Illinois tattoo before you even came here, right?

Yeah, yeah, that's true.

I don't know, I felt like some loyalty to Illinois even before I came here.

Everyone just seemed so nice to me, welcomed me so well, but I just felt like this is the place I would spend my college career at and.

You know, I just put it in, you know, with other other tutors I played before.

You guys have a good core of international players, the twins.

I know you knew them before you came here.

I mean I was lucky.

Like I had other friends that played at other colleges that didn't have anyone that speak the same language that they didn't like it, but I was lucky to have Tommy and Zia especially because we played in the same club before college and just having them here that experienced everything that they, they showed me and explained me everything I, I needed to know here.

And not just that, I would say Andre too and Stefan now.

Just having 5 of us from Europe with a different basketball mentality, if you know what I mean, gives all other teams different looks.

I'm sure a lot of people in America get your name wrong.

Talk a little bit about the proper way to say your name and how do you react when people will call you David.

Yeah, so it's David Mirkovic.

I'm David Mirkoic.

But yeah, it's cool, you know, David is a cool name too.

It just, I look at it as a, as a nickname, like there's a lot of nicknames, but yeah, probably Mirk.

It sounds good and short.

What's your, what's your DJ name?

DJ Smirk.

What, what got you into the DJ?

I'm, I was always into music, you know, like learning to make beats, write lyrics, a little bit watching DJs , hanging out with some like DJs.

It just seemed so interesting.

My advisor told me like, yeah, we know you're into music, like there's some class you can take, I feel you're gonna like it.

She said, DJ class, I said, I'm down though, sign me in for that.

I heard um 600 kids showed up to your DJing final.

Yeah, it was crazy, like that was my first time ever DJing in front of like more than, I don't know, like 15 people.

And I was, I would say I was more nervous than any game I have ever played in my life.

It was crazy, but it went all went good at the end, you know.

You got a taste of the Final Four.

What does the energy around town feel like now that you guys got so close?

I would say it was pretty crazy.

We couldn't go anywhere after Final Four, you know, it was so much energy in the town.

Everyone was so bodying about our basketball and our Final Four, and you know, we got, we got really close after that, you know, that was a big achievement after like 21 years getting to Final Four.

It was a really big thing for us and for the city.

How hungry are you to bring a championship to Illinois?

After we beat Iowa, it was cool, but I would say I don't have good memories from that Final Four, you know, because we lost.

I would say I'm, I'm really hungry for that, you know, that's the only goal right now I have in my mind.

I'm not thinking about further future.

I'm just thinking about winning game by game and going there and win it all, you know.

This, this upcoming season, obviously a lot of expectations, a lot of high um preseason rankings and things like that, like, what do you feel like your team has to do this year to go to the next level?

We upgraded since last year, no, we went to the Final Four and upgraded.

But like it's not just that, we, we have a lot of work and a lot of I would say experience to gain because we have, I mean 6 new freshmen, 1 transfer, you know, that's like basically half of your rotation.

They're still learning and they still have time to learn and experience what we need to win.

No, we just gotta uh.

I would say teach them more and I would say just keep working, you know, listen to the coaches.

They know the way, what we need to win it all.

We saw you earlier today obviously working on your strength and conditioning.

What are the biggest things you feel like you need to work on to get to that next level?

The league is crazy physical and crazy athletic right now.

I feel like there's not a lot of bad things I do on the court, but like I would say you just gotta improve everything and bring it to the next level.

You know, you guys obviously went viral a bunch for your Super Soaker postgame celebrations and things like that.

How did that start up?

Well, I would say this is all just natural.

Cameras were just there that recorded it and it made it viral, but.

It's just we, I would say we were emotional, we were happy after the wins and we celebrated it and that's it.

I don't know what else to say.

One of the things you've said you wanna work on is keeping your cool on the court.

What have you been doing to get your mind to a place where you can be more controlled on the court?

I would say first, getting more confident, putting more work, getting more confident in my game, just so after I make a mistake, I know it's OK, next time you're gonna do better.

And I would say uh off the court, I just try to look at other players, other big players, for example, Luca and like or other ones just to see how when you react like, like a hothead, just how it doesn't look good, and I don't want myself to look like that on the court.

Then I try to read some like mental books that are like just not basketball wise, just like a.

Mental preparation, meditation, books, it helped me a little, so I got better at that area too.

We've talked to a few people who have said that you never have a bad day.

What do you say to the notion that they say Merck, Merck doesn't have bad days?

I don't know, I just, I, I feel like I'm just happy.

That's that I have a new day in front of me, a new opportunity to, to improve and just laugh and live your best life.

You play basketball every day, you are just in a beautiful environment, you have a lot of teammates that you like, you know, it's just a great group and great environment.

Maybe before I wasn't like that, but I would say this program made me like that .