The Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in a stunning deal two weeks ago because the franchise believed they couldn’t win a title with Doncic as the star. Through comments about ‘defense winning championships‘ and the team governor name-dropping other title-winning stars who he believes Doncic isn’t like, it’s clear the Mavericks were over Luka Doncic.
Doncic has taken the Mavericks to great heights in his six seasons with the NBA. He shocked the NBA by leading Dallas to a Western Conference Finals run in 2022, eliminating heavy favorites Phoenix Suns in the second round behind a Doncic masterclass. He would also lead them to the NBA Finals in 2024 before being the only Maverick who averaged over 20 points in a 4-1 Finals loss to the Boston Celtics.
Outside of missing the Playoffs in his rookie season and the 2022-23 season where the front office lost Jalen Brunson for nothing and replaced him mid-season with Kyrie Irving, Doncic has consistently overachieved on the Mavericks. He’s already the franchise leader in All-NBA First Team appearances with five in six seasons and is the second-leading Playoff scorer of all time (points per game) behind Michael Jordan.
Given the example of title-winning superstars before Doncic, let’s take a look at how the championship-winning journey isn’t often complete by age 25.
LeBron James – 27 Years Old
Luka Doncic’s early career path is the most similar to LeBron James as we’ve ever seen. The only difference between them is that Doncic made the Finals in Year Six while LeBron did it in Year Four. Outside of that, they were both individual monsters with poorly built rosters around them that they carried to overachievement consistently.
Luka’s new teammate LeBron had to leave his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers and join the Miami Heat to build a roster he thought he could win with. Even after failing in their first year (2011), LeBron broke through and won his first title in 2012, eight years after being drafted into the NBA.
James was criticized incessantly for taking eight NBA seasons to win his first NBA title. The standard of greatness is incredibly high, but James still broke through earlier than some other legends.
Stephen Curry – 27 Years Old
Similar to LeBron James, Stephen Curry didn’t break through and win the NBA Championship until he was 27 years old. He did take fewer NBA seasons to do so, winning the title in his fifth season (2015) after being drafted in 2009. Curry came into the league as one of the best shooters, although the Warriors took time before unleashing him to the extent we saw in 2015 and 2016, the two years he won MVP.
Curry didn’t end up winning Finals MVP unlike all the other players on this list, so there is a definite team factor to all this as well. However, Curry went 73-9 with the same core of players the next season, so the Warriors roster as a whole was extremely complementary and groundbreaking for their time.
Curry would win a Finals MVP in 2022, seven years after his first title and after winning two more in the middle. Those titles wound up being the first for a different legendary player.
Michael Jordan – 28 Years Old
Even Michael Jordan wasn’t an instant title winner in the NBA. It further goes to emphasize the team aspect of the sport, as Jordan was widely considered one of the best players in the NBA by the end of his rookie season. He would break Playoff records with the Chicago Bulls and win league MVPs but couldn’t overcome the titans of the time in the Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics.
At age 28, in his sixth NBA season in 1990-91, Jordan would climb the summit of the NBA and become a champion. He’d go on to win the next two titles to complete a three-peat and then also complete another three-peat from 1996 to 1998. The roster core was pretty similar throughout each of the three-peats, with Scottie Pippen being alongside Jordan for all six titles.
Luka wasn’t on track to surpass Jordan, but he was on track to be a comparable modern-day version with his offensive impact. After all, Doncic is second only to Jordan in Playoff points per game, so if anyone were to match his pace, it would be Doncic.
Kevin Durant – 28 Years Old
Kevin Durant won his first NBA Championship at age 28 after spending nine years in the NBA. His path to a title was the most atypical. He left the OKC Thunder in 2017 and signed with the reigning Finalists, the team that overcame a 3-1 deficit to beat his Thunder, the Golden State Warriors.
Considering the Warriors went 73-9 and then upgraded Harrison Barnes to Kevin Durant, they easily won the 2017 and 2018 titles, with Durant winning Finals MVP ahead of Curry both times. The 2017 one was Durant’s first, completing a near-decade-long search for his first taste of NBA glory.
Durant was also under major pressure to win a title after having made an early NBA Finals appearance in 2012. But he played in an era with other giants, and his Thunder just never had enough for their opponents. Durant’s decision, albeit controversial, led to him becoming the only one of his old OKC stars to become a champion.
Shaquille O’Neal – 28 Years Old
Shaquille O’Neal is yet another player on this list who had to switch teams to compete for the NBA Finals. He was 28 years old when he won his first title with the Lakers in 2000, seven seasons after he was drafted in 1992. He left the Orlando Magic in 1996 for the Lakers, just one year removed from taking Orlando to the 1994 NBA Finals. This is similar to Doncic, although Doncic was traded against his will the very next season.
One star whose name is absent here is Kobe Bryant, as he became a champion at 22 years old after just four years in the NBA. While he was a crucial part of the title, that success likely wouldn’t have happened without Shaq having arguably the most dominant season in NBA history.
Shaq would win two more Finals MVPs to become only the second player after Jordan to win three Finals MVPs in a row. Kobe Bryant had to wait until 2009, 13 years after he was drafted in 1996 to win his first Finals MVP.
Hakeem Olajuwon – 31 Years Old
Hakeem Olajuwon might be the only player from the 1984 NBA Draft Class who could’ve been drafted ahead of Michael Jordan and nobody is mad about it. Hakeem might be the greatest defender in NBA history and one of the most innovative big-men of all time. However, his only title success came when Jordan left the NBA after the 1993 NBA title triumph.
Hakeem led the Houston Rockets to NBA title wins in 1994 and 1995, winning Finals MVP both times. The 1994 title came almost exactly 10 years after he had been drafted. Olajuwon was 31 years old and managed to win another title in his prime before Jordan returned to the throne from 1996 onward.
Olajuwon stayed with the same team in his quest to become a champion and brought Houston their only titles in franchise history. But the Rockets never gave up on Hakeem and managed to persevere and win two titles in an era where nobody else got a shot.
Dirk Nowitzki – 32 Years Old
The ultimate example is last, as Dirk Nowitzki’s example could’ve been the perfect mirror to Doncic’s. The team had made an unlikely Conference Finals early in Dirk’s career before reaching the NBA Finals in 2006 and losing. He won MVP in 2007 before losing to the No. 8 seed in the first round of the Playoffs. Dirk had similar complaints as well, being criticized for his defense and work ethic for years.
He finally broke through in arguably the most impressive fashion in 2011, his 13th season in the NBA after being drafted in 1997. His Mavericks swept the Lakers who were looking to three-peat while demolishing prime Brandon Roy’s Trail Blazers and the Durant-Westbrook-Harden OKC Thunder. The ultimate success came in the Finals against a superteam Miami Heat squad, with Dirk also exacting revenge for his 2006 loss against the Heat.
Dirk’s story is what should’ve motivated the Mavericks to keep Doncic. Mark Cuban’s unwavering loyalty to the German star led to the ultimate success down the road. Now Dirk is one of the most beloved athletes of all time, but Doncic won’t get to craft a similar history in Dallas as his journey came to an unceremoniously early end.
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