Jokic, Djokovic place Serbia sports front and center at NBA Finals, French Open

By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer

DENVER (AP) — They use the court as their canvas, seeing passing lanes and paths to victory that others in their sports simply cannot. For Novak Djokovic, it’s tennis. For Nikola Jokic, it’s basketball. For their home country of Serbia, June is shaping up as a month no sports fan there will ever forget. Two once-in-a-generation athletes who grew up about 2 1/2 hours apart in a country not much more populous than Colorado are in the hunt to win titles that could stamp both their names in the history books. A Serbian sweep — at the French Open and in the NBA Finals — would give Djokovic a record-setting 23rd grand slam; it would give Jokic his first NBA title and would finally bring a basketball championship to his new hometown of Denver.