It’s not so usual to see that a team finds a new franchise player nearly as soon as the other is ready to retire.
That was the case with the Dallas Mavericks and Luka Doncic, who was ready to carry Dirk Nowitzki’s torch as the new face of the franchise. In Dr. J’s words, he was the perfect replacement for Dirk:
”Luka is probably not top-ten yet. He has one year in the league and had a great year as a rookie and was phenomenal. Sometimes it could happen quickly for a guy years one through three more so in my estimation when a guy is in the league,” Dr. J said. “His fourth and fifth year is when you really what you got. The fact that he started playing professionally at age 16 or 17 hasn’t hurt him so he might be an early bloomer than some of the guys, who go to the universities in the U.S. The one and done guys, but he had a great season, and he is a great replacement for Dirk.”
Moreover, it was pretty wholesome for Mavs fans to see how great of a relationship Dirk and Doncic built right away. They kicked off from day one and the ego didn’t get in the way.
Dirk even said that Luka is already a better player than he ever was, and also called him the greatest player in Mavericks history, which could be a bit of a reach at this point.
And now that the German legend isn’t playing anymore, they’re still pretty close, as they were even spotted attending the Dallas Cowboys vs. New York Giants game on Sunday.
Luka and Dirk were at the Cowboys game today. 🔥
(via @jonmachota) pic.twitter.com/tSOYvI1HI4
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) October 11, 2021
Doncic may be new to football so maybe he was catching a couple of pointers from Dirk, and they were a bit of a lucky charm for the home team, as they won 44-20.
