How Luka Dončić grew from boy to man in ten months

Making his professional debut for Real Madrid at the age of just 16, future superstar Luka Dončić’s career has soared to new heights in just ten months since September 2017.

The European Championship that preceded that club season was a bittersweet one for Real. On the one hand, Slovenia, led by NBA player Goran Dragić and Real players Dončić and Anthony Randolph, surprised everyone and were crowned European champions for the first time.

On the other hand, Real Madrid’s backline leader Sergio Llull had to miss most of the club season after suffering a serious knee injury in a friendly match against Belgium in preparation for the European Championship. The cruciate ligament injury meant that the Spaniard played in just four EuroLeague games in the 2017/18 season.

Llull’s injury meant that a greater than expected burden fell on the shoulders of Facundo Campazzo and Dončić in Real’s backline. While the former is currently the best point guard in the EuroLeague, in the 17/18 season the Argentine was anything but a bad basketball player, but not as good as he is now.

Dončić, who started the season at the age of 18, showed fantastic play at the European Championship, but he had not yet become a dominant force in the EuroLeague.

That soon changed.

Dončić’s Euro was anything but a fluke

Dončić started the EuroLeague season with a bang, starting just under a month after the European Championship final. The Slovenian scored 27 points in an 88:74 away win over Anadolu Efes in Istanbul, and although CSKA Moscow managed to cut the Real Madrid star’s wingspan a bit in the second round – his efficiency factor was a decent 21, but he only hit two of eight shots from the field – Dončić again reached the 30-point mark in the next two games against Olimpia Milano and Žalgiris Kaunas. He missed the mark by three points against the former, and by two points against the latter.

However, it was clear that the performances shown at the European Championship were no coincidence and Dončić has truly risen to the top of European basketball. By the end of the regular season, there were only three games in which he scored single-digit points. His averages of 16.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists and a PIR of 22.7 in 30 games made him the undisputed superstar of the EuroLeague.

More important than his personal statistics was the fact that Real won far more games than they lost during the regular season. The Spanish royal club collected 19 wins and 11 losses, as did Greek giants Olympiacos and Panathinaikos of Athens, but the Greeks were better than Real in their meetings in the dead round.

Real, coached by Pablo Laso, lost the first battle of the quarterfinals to Panathinaikos by a whopping 28 points, but then won three games in a row and secured a place in the final tournament. By the way, Llull was back on the court in the last two games of the series.

In the top four, Real Madrid overcame CSKA thanks to a strong second half – 16 points from Llull and Dončić – and in the final they defeated Fenerbahce Istanbul, who were trying to defend their title, 85:80. In that game, Real was carried by Slovenian and Frenchman Fabien Causeur.

That EuroLeague title was honey-sweet for Real, as it marked their tenth triumph in the Old World’s top league.

Dončić + Jokić = Superduo

To make matters worse, Real also won the Spanish championship. They were also very close to a hat-trick when they lost the Spanish Cup to their arch-rival Barcelona by just two points. By the way, at that time, the Catalan giants included our northern neighbor Petteri Koponen and today’s EuroLeague superstar Aleksandar Vezenkov.

In addition to winning with Real, Dončić earned a lot of individual awards. The Slovenian became the most valuable player (MVP) of both the EuroLeague regular season and the final tournament. Of course, he was also in the symbolic five of the season and was chosen as the best young player for the second year in a row. He also became the MVP and the best young player in the Spanish championship, and he was also the only Real player to be chosen as the symbolic five of the ACB.

Although Dončić was only 19 years old by the spring of 2018, he had won practically every title with Real. The Slovenian was the only one who failed to win the Spanish Cup MVP, but that probably didn’t give him any sleepless nights.

Ten days after the end of the season, it was announced that Dončić would be leaving Real and moving to the NBA. Dončić, who left his homeland at the age of 13 to join the Madrid team’s youth system, played 216 games for Real, won seven titles and countless fans.

Or as Real’s website states: “He arrived as a 13-year-old boy and left in the summer of 2018, having left an indelible mark on the history of his dream club.”

It is interesting to note that on the night of the NBA Youth Player Selection, a trade that would have put together a real super duo as of today was not far off. Mike Singer, who works for the Denver Nuggets, told the Hoop Collective podcast that his father-in-law wanted Dončić in the 2018 draft, so that he could share the team with Serbian Nikola Jokić.

The Nuggets were 14th in the draft, and in order to move up, the Denver club was willing to give up Gary Harris and two first-round picks. The deal was put on the table by the Sacramento Kings, but Serbian Vlade Divac rejected it.

Instead of getting a future superstar, the Kings selected Marvin Bagley III, who is not a bad player, but is light years away from Dončić.

Dončić ended up being the third pick in the draft, but the Atlanta Hawks traded him to the Dallas Mavericks, where the Slovenian took over from another legendary European, Dirk Nowitzki.

The rest, as the classics say, is history.