Novak Djokovic acknowledged that he is inspired by the likes of LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo and Tom Brady to not consider retirement.
Speaking at the ‘GOAT Narrative: Legends to Legacies’ panel alongside Shaquille O’Neal and Dana White in Saudi Arabia, Djokovic shared plenty on what made him one of the all-time great athletes and why he continues to compete.
“Longevity is one of my biggest motivations,” Djokovic said. “I really wanna see how far I can go. I think you see across all the global sports, LeBron James, he’s still going strong and he’s 40. Cristiano Ronaldo, Tom Brady played till he was 40-something years old, it’s unbelievable.
“They’re inspiring me as well. I wanna keep going and that’s one of the motivations I have.”
The Serb superstar is in Riyadh for the Six Kings Slam event along with Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Taylor Fritz and Stefanos Tsitsipas. He was defeated 6-4, 6-2 by Sinner in the semifinals on Thursday.
Djokovic won Olympic gold and reached the Wimbledon final in 2024 but showed obvious signs of decline this year. He won just one tournament which was a 250-Tour level event and looked a level below both Alcaraz and Sinner.
At age 38, though, it’s still mighty impressive that he could reach the semifinals of all four Majors. He has indicated that competing at a top-five or top-10 level is something that would be satisfying enough at this stage of his career.
Looking forward, Djokovic also hinted at upcoming changes to the sport of tennis that could revolutionize the game.
“I wanna be playing when we rejuvenate our sport and set the new platform that is going to go on for decades to come.”
🚨 Novak Djokovic on retirement :
“I wanna see how far I can go, Seeing LeBron, Ronaldo play in to their 40s is motivating. Tennis is changing and I want to play to experience the change. So yeah, people want it to happen, but not anytime soon 😅”
— SK (@Djoko_UTD) October 16, 2025
Shaq Acknowledges Djokovic As Tennis’ Greatest Ever
Also speaking at the event was Shaquille O’Neal and he described his first meeting with Djokovic. He also referred to him as the greatest to have ever played the sport of tennis.
“I’m sitting next to two icons: Dana White and the GOAT of tennis. There’s a lot of names that you can put in there but I’ve known this for awhile and he’s definitely the GOAT. I remember the first time we met each other. He looked, I looked, we didn’t know each other but we smiled and gave each other a big hug.
“Even though I am who I am, I’m still a fan. I didn’t know the great guy from tennis knew who I was. He looked at me and was like, “Shaq!” I was like, “Djokovic, you know who I am!”… We just hugged and we’ve been friends ever since.”
It’s always cool to see greats of different sports interact and the excitement they have to meet each other. In this case, it’s amusing to see the humility in each of O’Neal and Djokovic they wouldn’t know who the other was.
🚨 Shaq at the Joy Forum :
“I’m sitting next to the Goat. I mean he’s definitely the Greatest player of all time. When I met him first I was amazed that he knew me. I went Djokovic…you know me. I’m a fan”
Shaq 🤝 Goatpic.twitter.com/WO3muIfQJM
— SK (@Djoko_UTD) October 16, 2025
