Dirk Nowitzki has revealed he was not so positive about Luka Doncic when the Dallas Mavericks first drafted him in 2018.
Nowitzki knew the Mavs would wish a brand new star following his retirement, he simply wasn’t positive Doncic was that man.
“My end of career wasn’t pretty, you know, we were struggling,” Nowitzki stated on All The Smoke. “There was some discuss of tanking occurring and we wanted a bit spark plug to vary issues. I didn’t suppose it was going to be this child… I’m like, I’m undecided that is going to work. Is he fast sufficient? Is he athletic sufficient to go purchase guys like he’s in Europe? And so there have been loads of doubts there from everyone on the crew.
“And so guys were trying to test him a little bit (before training camp started) and you know foul him a little bit here and there in their scrimmages. And you can already see that this kid’s got something about him. He’s got that swag. He knows how to play. He was getting some AND1 mixtape passes out of nowhere. And I’m like, he was flashing some of the talent.”
It’s considerably of a shocking take from Dirk. Luka had loads of doubters coming into the league, however chief amongst them have been media taking heads like Stephen A. Smith who appeared to not perceive the gravity of what Doncic had achieved in Europe.
Doncic profitable EuroLeague and EuroBasket titles – in addition to EuroLeague MVP – was no accident. In hindsight, Luka was too good in Europe to be a bust.
Then once more, even those that predicted Doncic would succeed within the NBA would have struggled to think about he’d grow to be as nice as he’s now.
READ MORE: Luka Doncic Addresses Chemistry With Kyrie Irving
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