“I don’t know any other European kid that plays at such a high level,” Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis said back then, after an 18-year-old Doncic racked up 27 points and 9 rebounds against Porzingis and Latvia at EuroBasket in 2017. “There’s no other college kid that’s able to put up those numbers in a EuroLeague game.”
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“He’s a born winner,” said teammate Goran Dragic after Slovenia won gold at that tournament for the first time, turning serious when a reporter laughed. “I’m not kidding. Mark my words: He’s going to be one of the best in the whole world.”
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Scouts in Europe raved about a basketball prodigy with transcendent vision and passing, advanced ballhandling skills and surgical precision in the pick-and-roll, and huge upside as an off-the-dribble scorer. It looked as though you had placed a mirror in front of James Harden and had him figure out basketball much earlier.
Some teams weren’t convinced, perhaps thinking Doncic might be more Darko Milicic than Harden 2.0. He slipped to No. 3 in the 2018 NBA Draft behind Arizona’s Deandre Ayton (to the Suns) and Duke’s Marvin Bagley Jr. (Kings), then was immediately traded to Dallas by the Hawks for Trae Young.
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Six years after that draft, the Suns had to do everything they could to get rid of Ayton’s contract in 2023. It took the Kings years to recover from wasting their choice on Bagley; the Hawks made out OK with an All-Star in Young — but Doncic hung 73 points on Atlanta back in January, lest Atlanta forget what could’ve been.
It’s safe to say they’re convinced now.
After becoming the first European to lead the NBA in scoring this season, Doncic earned his fifth straight All-NBA first-team selection — joining Kevin Durant and Tim Duncan as the only players to achieve that feat before turning 26. He’s been sensational throughout the playoffs, leading the Mavericks to the NBA Finals.
“He was definitely Luka Magic mode,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said after 36 points from Doncic helped dispatch the Timberwolves in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals. “He set the tone and made it easier for everybody else. And everybody else stepped up.”
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“Luka Magic” dates back to Doncic’s 2018-19 Rookie of the Year season, and it is equal parts nickname and phenomenon.
The first glimpse of it might have been in a December game against the Trail Blazers, when the nascent superstar hit an absurd corner triple to tie the game with just six-tenths of a second to get a shot off, leading Mavericks play-by-play voice Mark Followill to exclaim, “That is Luka Magic!”
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The term refers not only to his incredible consistency and production but to his ability to author singular moments that seem impossible.
It’s when Doncic split a double team and hit a one-legged 3-pointer to beat the buzzer (and the Grizzlies) in 2021. It’s the stepback, buzzer-beating triple over three defenders to take down the Celtics early the following season. It’s a similar stepback buzzer-beater to cap off a 43-point, 17-rebound, 13-assist triple-double against the Clippers — in his fourth career playoff game.
LeBron James called Doncic his favorite player back in 2022, and explained what makes him so special on an episode of James’s TV show, “The Shop.”
“His size,” James said last year. “He’s gigantic. He’s a 6-8 point guard, he’s 225 pounds, he has the ball on a string, and more importantly, his vision. That’s why I love him. His vision. He can control a game; he doesn’t even have to shoot.”
Much of Doncic’s career in Dallas has been characterized by immense individual success followed by team disappointment. The Mavericks have had a player voted among the five best players in basketball for five straight years, and all they had to show through the first four years was one Western Conference finals appearance in 2022, bookended by two first-round exits in 2020 and 2021 and a failure to make the playoffs at all in 2023.
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Then came this playoff run, with Doncic ascending to new levels — despite battling some injuries — and forming a potent duo with Kyrie Irving to bring Dallas to its first Finals since 2011.
A poor shooting series for Doncic mattered little as he and the Mavericks vanquished the Clippers in the first round. They took care of the top-seeded Thunder with a dramatic Game 6 win, then came face-to-face with Minnesota, a team riding high on the shoulders of Anthony Edwards after taking out the defending champion Nuggets.
The Timberwolves, owners of the best defense in the NBA during the regular season, had no answer for Doncic. He averaged 32.4 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 8.2 assists in the Western Conference finals. He hit a beautiful step-back jumper over the Defensive Player of the Year, Rudy Gobert, to win Game 2, then poured in 20 first-quarter points in a clinching Game 5.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla acknowledged last week that “there’s no stopping” Doncic and Irving, and these NBA Finals are a much more complicated proposition than containing the star power in the backcourt.
But the reality is that the Mavericks have the best player in this series and, depending on whom you ask, perhaps the best player in the world.
Amin Touri can be reached at amin.touri@globe.com.
