Miami, Florida - The Miami Heat's 19-year-old rookie Nikola Jovic is a highly accomplished international star with one milestone yet to be achieved: graduating from high school.

The Serbian native has one final step to complete before earning his high school diploma – a comprehensive exam to cap his senior year in Serbia.

"To put it in perspective, he's still waiting to do his final exam to graduate from high school, and doing that over Zoom," Miami's head coach Erik Spoelstra said in a press conference on Thursday.

While his high school peers took the exam in the spring, Jovic was enduring intense workouts to prepare for the 2022 NBA Draft.

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Training in the US for the draft, Jovic didn't have time to study for and take his final exams – administered in Serbia – due to the huge time difference between the two countries.

Still, the hopeful NBA champion has no regrets about his decision, as he now plays alongside the basketball legends he grew up watching on television.

In the draft, Jovic was the 27th pick in the first round and made his NBA preseason debut last Tuesday against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

On Thursday, the 6-foot-10 multi-position player impressed the basketball world in the preseason night game against the Brooklyn Nets with his best performance yet.

Jovic posted 10 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals in 16 minutes in the Heat's 109-80 victory.

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"He's extremely unique," Spoelstra said after Miami's win. "His skill set is unique because of his size.

He added: "He's really just starting his weight-lifting program with us the last six weeks. So we won't even see the benefit of that until next summer. But then his ability to handle, to shoot, to put the ball on the floor. He's a really good passer. That's probably at this point his best skill, and he's developing all the rest of it."

After Jovic earns his high school diploma, he plans to go to college and follow in the footsteps of NBA players who earned their degrees while playing in the league.