[1] Dražen Dalipagić was the first player to come from Serbia to be on trial with an NBA team, with the Boston Celtics in 1976, but, despite general manager Red Auerbach calling him an "NBA star material", he wasn't signed due to his "inability to communicate with the coach and his fellow players".
[2] Center Vlade Divac and forward Žarko Paspalj were the first Serbian players to play in the NBA, in the 1989–90 season.
In 2004, Darko Miličić became the first basketball player from Serbia to win an NBA championship.
Since then, Predrag Stojaković, Ognjen Kuzmić, Nemanja Bjelica, and Nikola Jokić won the league in 2011, 2015, 2022, and 2023, respectively.
In 2022, Jokić was named the NBA MVP for the second year in a row, becoming the 13th player to win the award in consecutive seasons, as well as the second European player to win the award more than once, joining Giannis Antetokounmpo.