Many fans believe that Luka Doncic is going to be the face of the league going forward. The Slovenian has only been in the league for 3 years and has already established himself as one of the best players in the league.
Doncic has already won Rookie Of The Year and been an All-Star starter and an All-NBA player during his short stint. Doncic is a hot commodity. And the Dallas Mavericks know that they have the future of their team secured, especially after signing him to a 5-year supermax extension this offseason.
One person who is a big fan of Luka Doncic is none other than LeBron James. James has been a huge advocate of Luka’s and spoken about what a great player he is. In fact, James has picked Luka Doncic to be on his All-Star teams for the last 2 seasons straight.
So much so, that LeBron James even wanted Luka Doncic to be the first player to wear his signature shoe when it came. James doesn’t have his own signature brand as of yet but wanted Luka to be the star player he built his brand around.
That probably won’t be possible, given that Luka signed with Jordan brand in 2019. Doncic was recently a guest on Complex’s ‘Sneaker Shopping’. The host asked Doncic how he felt about LeBron James wanting to build his brand around him (4:18 mark).
Doncic felt privileged that LeBron wanted him, even though he was happy after signing with Jordan brand.
“It felt really nice. It was special. He wanted me to be the first, but at that time I was already with Jordan. (With) which I’m really happy to be with. And I gotta say it’s great, I get a lot of shoes. It’s amazing.”
James is a big admirer of Luka’s game and considers him very similar to himself. Both players did win Rookie Of The Year and became All-Stars in their sophomore season. So the parallels between their careers are quite easy to see.
Given Luka’s talent, he would have been the best player to build LeBron’s brand around. Perhaps LeBron can lure Luka away from Jordan brand later in his career. But given how happy Luka is with them, that might not be happening anytime soon.
