Luka Doncic

I've seen a lot of basketball.
This kid may be the greatest player ever
His performance last nite blew me away.
He came out of nowhere. Born in Slovenia, went pro early in Europe so no NCAA
He's only 21. WTF. He's just a kid.
43 points, 17 rebounds, 13 assists in a playoff game. NBA teams dont play hard D until the playoffs.
Here are his highlights from last nite including the game winning shot as time runs out

Quote: terapined

He came out of nowhere. Born in Slovenia, went pro early in Europe so no NCAA

Came out of nowhere? Not even close, come on man that's just disrespectful to European basketball.

Won the MVP, playoff MVP and championship of the Euroleague (second best league in the world, a collection of champions of the best leagues in Europe) as a teenager ,the best player on the most dominant team in Europe. Youngest player to ever play for Real Madrid's over 18 team (best team in Europe). Euroleague all decade team despite only really playing two seasons. A league that always has dozens and dozens of former and future NBA players on their rosters or players who could be in NBA if they wanted to take a pay cut and be bit role players. Kristaps Porzingis was a backup in that league before being drafted, teams in the league are not particularly interested in developing young players at the expense of winning now and in fact some suspect they try to suppress the most talented at times hoping they don't get plucked by the NBA too early. Most accomplished European player at his age in history, won everything.

It's a new era of international basketball for sure no longer so American dominant, it's crazy to think that in three years the two best players in the league are probably going to be European between Giannis and Doncic, both probably top 5 already and Giannis back to back MVP's. Both well on their way to surpassing Dirk Nowitzki as the greatest European ever.

That highlight reel IMO doesn't really show Luka's greatness, the best part of his game is his passing. Shooters like Seth Curry and Tim Hardaway, Jr. just getting spoonfed great shots, bigs easy dunks. They won that game without Porzingis. Mavs training staff has done a good job with him he was a bit chubby. He is probably the player best in the game at the stop/slowdown layup where they kind of stop or jump slightly backwards on a layup while in the process of shooting letting the defender jump past.

Vlade Divace got fired basically for passing on him with the #2 pick. Suns also passed and Hawks traded the pick used on him away. Some of the passing exploits show up around 4:30 of video. You may notice many former NBA american players in these videos, definitely many current and former NBA players from Europe (KP, Bogdan Bogdanovic). Lamar Odom, former first round pick and Michigan St. player Adrian Payne I noticed. Definitely a man's league way above NCAA level.

Little Luka winning MVP at an I believe under 16 tournament flashing well developed skills shortly after signing a 5 year contract with Real Madrid at age 13. Man Terapined has got me going down the rabbit hole.

Luka has a little bit of everyone.

Magic: He has great court vision and plays chess while others are playing checkers. He makes his mediocre team much better how Magic used to make Rambis, Cooper, Byron Scott, and other middle of the road players look much better. His anticipation for contact and foul is second to none.

Bird: He is not as great of a shooter as Bird was, and may never be at Bird's level. However, he still has a lot of room for improvement in that category. If he does, he'll be even scarier. Much like Bird, Luka is below average in athleticism compared to the rest of the league. Even with said below average athleticism, he can ALWAYS get to his spot by being shifty and manipulating his pace and speed. He does have an advantage over Bird in that he's a big meaty player. He has the ability to bump and absorb more contact than Bird.

MJ: Al though he doesn't nearly have the athleticism MJ had (and will never be anywhere close to MJ), Luka has MJ's clutch genes. In just two years in his campaign, Luka has hit more clutch shots that I can remember than anybody I've watched. Most players crumble when there is pressure. I feel like Luka thrives and welcomes the pressure. He also have shown that he does not back down from challenges (much like how MJ used to get beat up by Detroit and kept coming even after beatings). I think it helps Luka that current NBA is not as physical as the NBA in the 80s and 90s.

If he doesn't endure career limiting injuries, I think he has a chance to be one of the greatest. Taking down the title of GOAT away from MJ will be a difficult task as it's now "blasphemous" to think anybody can be greater than MJ. I think Luka and MJ are very different players much like MJ and Lebron are. I think a more fair comparison would be Lebron James. So far, Luka has hit his marks and bested Lebron on stats by age comparison even with his below the average athleticism. However, time will tell if Luka has peaked (or close to peak) or will elevate much more.

Quote: SiegfriedRoy

Taking down the title of GOAT away from MJ will be a difficult task as it's now "blasphemous" to think anybody can be greater than MJ.

I still think Lebron has an argument for best player. No he doesn't have the titles, but if you look at statistics he is right there. I never really got to watch Bill Russell, but he may also be the best to ever play.

Just a reminder
The Luka Doncic show at 8PM tonight
I'll be watching

Son and I often ask who would you take for 1 year... no contract issues... no injury issues....

I like that I can do it with just first names!

1. Lebron
2. Giannis
3. Lika
4. Kawhi
5. James
6. Anthony
7. Kevin
8. Kyrie, Steph, Russell, Paul, Chris

I expect Luka to be #1 by 2022