Luka Doncic is coming into the new season off the back of 3 straight All-NBA First-Team selections. The Mavericks superstar is by far the best player under 25 in the NBA and has even been ranked in the Top 5 overall by some publications. Luka has been the pre-season favorite for MVP for a couple of seasons now, and with the Slovenian seemingly in shape to start this season, it would be tough to bet against him finally bagging the award.
Doncic is an offense by himself, his ability to score at every level and make passes no one else can make him truly unique. And it’s hard to predict just what Luka’s ceiling is, he already carried his team to the Western Conference Finals without an All-Star partner last season. And while some think he might have already reached his peak, others have much greater expectations from Luka Magic.
Matt Barnes Claims Luka Doncic Will Go Down As The Greatest Foreign-Born Player In NBA History
The NBA has seen many foreign players come in and impress over the years. With every passing decade, there are even more, and Dirk Nowitzki and Hakeem Olajuwon stand atop the mountain as the greatest in that category. But Barnes thinks Doncic can end his career better than both those legends, as he told Shannon Sharpe on Club Shay Shay.
(starts at 1:28 minutes):
“He’s a gamer. He’s special. He’s a unicorn. You know, I mean, he’s going to go down – with all due respect to Dirk (Nowitzki) and Drazen (Petrovic) and some of these other guys, if not, you know, Hakeem (Olajuwon) – arguably the greatest foreign born player in the history of the game. And I think that you know he was playing against grown man at a young age.
“Luka’s parents threw him in the fire early,” Barnes said. “You know, he’s playing against men that are smoking cigarettes at halftime at like 12 or 13 years old, so he’s been in the wars, in the battles. He knows how to play against people, so when he got to the NBA, there was nothing new to him. You know, to me, I think he was the most NBA-ready offensive player we’ve ever seen.”
Barnes’ praise may seem excessive to some, after all, Nowitzki and Olajuwon are Top 10 all-time in different categories. They are also universally respected as having won teams for the organization that drafted them without too much superstar help. If Doncic ends his career being better than them, it’ll be a huge achievement for the Slovenian superstar.
