Barack Obama admits to feeling 'stressed' by Nikola Jokic during Olympic Games

Over the summer, Nikola Jokic and Team Serbia came close to pulling off one of the biggest upsets in basketball history when the team went blow-for-blow with a Team USA squad featuring the trio of LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant.

Former President Barack Obama talked about this intense matchup during Tuesday's episode of "The Young Man and The Three," the hit podcast formerly hosted by JJ Redick. He said that Jokic's performance in the semifinal game had him feeling stressed.

While speaking to Tommy Alter and Tyrese Haliburton, who was part of Team USA but didn't see any action in the semifinal game against Serbia, Obama said:

"I have to tell you, Serbia got me nervous and I guarantee you he got the coaches nervous too because look Jokic is a beast I mean you know he is as smart and effective a player and he's big right so it's not just that, ... he's got the vision Like Larry Bird and he's like you know Sabonis' Dad, ... just a big man." [19:00]

"So he can just bang people in and he's got great hands and then all their perimeter guys were shooting the lights out, so yes, I didn't think we were going to lose but I also thought there was a possibility that we might."

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"It's hard to take your eyes off Wembanyama," - Barack Obama weighs in a number of NBA topics in addition to Nikola Jokic's play at the Olympics

In addition to talking about the 2024 Paris Olympics and Nikola Jokic's play, Barack Obama also spoke about the 2024-25 NBA season ahead. At one point, he weighed in on the Indiana Pacers' season ahead and explained why he isn't a fan of the All-Star game and the lack of importance placed on the game by players.

At another point, he spoke about what the return of Ja Morant means for the Western Conference after the high-flying guard dealt with a suspension and an injury that hampered the team's chances of competing with Nikola Jokic and the best the Western Conference has to offer.

When discussing the season ahead, sophomore sensation Victor Wembanyama also came up.

After winning the 2024 Rookie of the Year award and finishing as a finalist for the Defensive Player of the Year award, Obama believes that Wemby is one of the most unique players since Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

“It’s hard to take your eyes off Wembanyama when he’s on the court. You’re too young to remember when Durant first came in the league. That was freakish. You just hadn’t seen somebody that tall with that skill set."

"You’re definitely not old enough to remember Magic and Bird. People forget how tall Bird was. Bird was like a legit 6-foot-9 and Magic was 6-foot-9. Those guys were doing things that, up until that point, big men hadn’t done.”

With the 2024-25 season officially underway, it will be interesting to see how things play out not just in the Western Conference, but also across the league.