Five years ago, an eager Nikola Jokic walked into the Pepsi Center for one of the first games of his NBA career. The 20-year-old Serbian had been waiting for this moment, and it had finally come.



Well, almost.



Jokic had four hours from the time he set foot into the building until tipoff. He went to the Nuggets locker room and sat in his newly assigned spot, patiently waiting for everyone else to arrive and for pregame warmups to begin.



He didn’t stay patient long. Looking for something to do to kill time, Jokic found a ping-pong table and a partner to play with in team equipment manager Sparky Gonzales. It was the first time the two played ping-pong together in what would quickly become Jokic’s regular pregame routine.



Players across the league have picked up habits to tailor-make the perfect game day, but these routines aren’t set in stone. Jokic played ping-pong with Gonzales before each home game for four years but decided to...