Look at this delightful photo of Nikola Jokic riding his race horse chariot

Jokic briefly quit basketball to pursue horse racing when he was younger.

Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic, who was announced as the NBA’s MVP earlier this month, is here to solve all of our problems.

The basketball world was inundated with what felt like a historically busy day on the news cycle. Twitter was flooded with updates on injuries (Kawhi Leonard, Mike Conley) and COVID-19 protocol (Chris Paul) that will have a massive impact on nearly all the remaining teams in the playoffs.

There were some massive coaching changes as well. Scott Brooks is out after five years with the Washington Wizards and Stan Van Gundy is gone after just one season for the New Orleans Pelicans. We even had a front-office change — Donnie Nelson is no longer the GM after more than 23 years with the Dallas Mavericks

All of this happened before 12 p.m. PST and if you were following all of that as it happened live, my goodness, your head is probably spinning as much as mine is right now.

That’s why now, more than ever, you need to take a deep breath. Breathe in. It feels good, right? Now that you’re feeling calm, and you’ve regrouped at least some of your focus, lean in and take a good hard look at this photograph of Jokic:

After getting eliminated by the Suns in the second round of the playoffs, the big man is not only back in his hometown of Sombor in Serbia but he is also riding a horse on a chariot carriage.

You have to understand Jokic who has said that he first fell in love with horses when he was 12 years old, briefly quit basketball to pursue horse racing when he was younger. He told SLAM that he once finished in fourth place in a race.

Jokic owns his own racehorse, named Dream Catcher, and last year he spoke to reporter Nick Kosmider about his obsession (via The Athletic):

“I just enjoy being around them and seeing their different characteristics. You get to see when they work out that they are basically like us. They are athletes, sprinters. They are magnificent creatures.”

His head coach, Mike Malone, told ESPN that Jokic spends his free time reading books about horses. Former teammate Gary Harris Jr. added that Jokic gets a “calming feeling” whenever he talks about horses and you can just tell that he loves them.

Harris has a point. The league MVP truly looks so serene and carefree in this photograph, which he certainly deserves after a long and hard-fought season for the Nuggets. It is an excellent change-of-pace from how we last saw him when he was ejected during an elimination game against the Phoenix.

Even on the best of days, it can hard to feel as relaxed as Jokic appears to be while on the back of this horse. But after following along with all of the news that broke in basketball today, his laissez-faire vibe is something that we can only hope to one day reach.

Perhaps one way that we can get there is by watching a full video of Jokic on his horse chariot:

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