Luka Doncic is not who we thought he was

First of all, just to get this out in the open, this is a fluff piece. There will be very little hard content here. Ignore this and go read The Duck Piece if you’re looking for something substantive.

This is how I’m supposed to write things, right? By asking the reader to stop reading and go somewhere else? Who cares? I’m just here to set myself up for Kirk, Mavs Moneyball’s EIC, to ether me in an editor’s note.

Anywho, lets talk Luka. Do you remember how much we all wanted the Dallas Mavericks to draft him? Do you remember the feeling when we realized it was happening? I was in a car with my parents and my sister, and she and I were in the backseat two-screening the draft and Twitter. I literally screamed when the trade came through.

My mother, born and raised in Dallas proper, knows little about the Mavericks, but she tries to care because she’s a good mom. She said “What happened? Who’d they get?” and we described Luka as follows: “Well, he’s basically a European, poor man’s LeBron James,” which she seemed to fully understand. And that was just adrenaline talking! Poor man’s LeBron James was honestly a dream at that point.

But as we all know now, Luka Doncic is not a poor man’s LeBron James.

Luka Doncic is Luka F****** Doncic.

My only point in writing this is basically so I can tell myself—and I guess the rest of you folks—to take a step back and gaze at the wonder that is Luka. The numbers are wild, the leadership is apparent, the passes are incredible. He’s showy on the court but gives the credit to his teammates after the games.

Mavericks fans got two decades of Dirk Nowitzki, a singularly amazing personality among the all-time greats, and we get to follow that up—immediately— with this kid? We don’t deserve this. We’re lucky. Whatever happens in Luka’a career, count your blessings that a good chunk of it, at the very least, will be in a Mavericks uniform.

Luka Doncic is not who we thought he would be. He is far, far greater.