"Crazy", "monstrous", "legendary", "unreal", "inhuman"... Superlatives paraded in an attempt to describe Luka Doncic's enormous performance on Wednesday September 7 against France in EuroBasket.
A match concluded with the score of 88-82 in favor of Slovenia in which Doncic scored 47 points on his own, further confirming his status as a basketball prodigy.
The performance of "Luka Magic" against France is historic: only one player has done better in the history of the competition, 65 years ago.
And again, it was the Belgian Eddy Terrace who had collected 63 points in a classification match, without much stake, against Albania in 1967, according to data from the International Basketball Federation (Fiba).
Luka Doncic put on a SHOW vs.
France 🔥
47 PTS
7 REB
5 AST
And the most points scored in a EuroBasket game in 65 years 😤 pic.twitter.com/7ioavqYaB9
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 7, 2022
Luka Doncic is a regular in the deluge of points scored.
He has already done better than his 47 points with his selection.
It was at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021: 49 points in a group stage match against Argentina.
In addition, with 53.4% of the points scored by his team, "Luka Magic" has the highest percentage since the Greek Nikos Galis against the USSR in 1989.
"I was just born to play basketball"
At only 23 years old, he is already considered one of the best basketball players on the planet.
Luka Doncic was fed with the orange ball.
Son of former Serbian player Sasa Doncic, naturalized Slovenian in the 1990s, he started playing basketball at a very young age, while attending his father's matches.
"I remember he stayed under the basket," Goran Dragic, a former teammate of the father and current NBA player, told Reverse magazine.
"Even at that age, you could tell he had a good feeling for the game. Like his father. When we came back from the locker room at half-time, he was always there shooting. I always kept this memory in mind."
On April 30, 2015, Luka Dončić made his professional debut for Real Madrid in the Liga ACB against Unicaja.
At 16 years, 2 months, and 2 days of age, he became the youngest player to ever play for Real Madrid in the ACB.
@luka7doncic are we forgetting something?
pic.twitter.com/p8qTuV8qCz
— Sports History (@SportsHistory13) April 30, 2020
In the youth teams, Luka Doncic is already panicking the counters and playing in the upper categories.
For him, basketball is not just a sport, it is an all-consuming passion.
"I think it's a gift," he told Euroleague.net.
"I was just born to play basketball."
At 13, the native of Ljubljana went into exile in Spain to train at the prestigious Real Madrid.
Three years later, he became the club's youngest player to play in La Liga.
He then chained the titles with a Euroleague, three Spanish championships, two King's Cups and an intercontinental cup.
He also shines in the national team.
In 2017, he took part in the European Championship with Slovenia, which won the competition undefeated.
The wonderkid ✅
The teenager who makes the world of 🏀 go crazy ✅#FlashBackFriday to @Luka7Doncic' miracles during #EuroBasket2017!@kzs_si 🇸🇮 pic.twitter.com/ocCA3UsTpz
— FIBA EuroBasket (@EuroBasket) December 15, 2017
A resounding debut in the NBA
His exploits can no longer be limited to Europe alone.
The Slovenian nugget was selected in 2018 in 3rd position in the NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks before being sent in stride to the Dallas Mavericks.
The arrival on American soil does not change anything in his habits.
Luka Doncic continues to progress with insolence.
He was even named rookie of the year at the end of his first season and became the second European player to win this award after Pau Gasol.
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by Luka Doncic (@lukadoncic)
Since then, he has enjoyed the heyday of the Dallas Mavericks where, after the departure of German legend Dirk Nowitzki – for whom a tribute ceremony was held on Wednesday on the sidelines of EuroBasket – he regained the status of fan favorite .
During the 2021 season, he sent his team to the play-offs during which the Texans faced in the first round, like the previous year, the Los Angeles Clippers of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Even though the Mavericks are knocked out in seven innings, Luka Doncic is averaging impressive 35.7 points, 10.3 assists and 7.9 rebounds in this series.
Having become essential to the franchise, the Slovenian now has the right to his official day, July 6, in Dallas County.
Dallas County has officially declared July 6th as Luka Doncic Day 🪄 @luka7doncic |
#MFFL pic.twitter.com/u5H3S9RlYk
— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) July 6, 2021
"Luka Magic", named three times in a row in the five of the NBA season, drains American media to the Old Continent for the Euro: a reporter from the Dallas Morning News, the daily following his Mavericks, another from ESPN preparing a book about him.
Even the owner of his franchise, Mark Cuban, and his trainer Jason Kidd made the trip.
The ceremony honoring Dirk Nowitzki helping.
A revenge to take against France
It remains to lead his franchise, like his selection, towards a title as boss.
The reunion with France on Wednesday revived sensitive memories for the Slovenian prodigy: those of elimination in the semi-finals of the Olympics (90-89) after Nicolas Batum's counter at the buzzer on Klemen Prepelic who was about to score his lay -up.
"It was very hard to digest," delivered the Slovenian phenomenon at a press conference on Tuesday.
"It was our first Olympics and we finished fourth, which is the worst possible place. It's been hard to move on. But you learn what you should have done better, what you shouldn't. to make."
On Wednesday, Luka Doncic showed revenge on the floor in Cologne.
The rest is already history and it could continue to be written: until a title on September 18?
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