THE GIFTS ARE MAGNIFICENT FOR LUKA DONCIC, WHO TRIES TO BULLY UP AN NBA TITLE
His numbers are staggering at 25, which didn’t enter LeBron James’ brainstream when he described Kyrie Irving as “the most gifted player” in history, and let’s see if Doncic remains healthy and wins
No matter how LeBron James intrudes — calling Kyrie Irving “the most gifted player the NBA has ever seen” — we actually see Luka Doncic bringing the golden bounty. To be gifted is a subjective view. But to rank second all-time in postseason scoring as the only man ever to average eight assists and eight rebounds a game — yep, a smiling Michael Jordan would point to Doncic as the real gift endower.
The Finals start Thursday night in Boston, where Irving will hear vicious crowd abuse while others ask if LeBron would sign with the Dallas Mavericks. JJ Redick as his coach and podcasting partner in Los Angeles? How about bringing his 39-year-old gifts so Luka and Kyrie can help him win more titles, but for now, all eyes are on Doncic. He’s trying to finish an early run as basketball’s majestic child, and it figures James would implant his wet nose. A lad in tiger tattoos, 14 years younger, controls our gaze.
“He’s definitely in ‘Luka Magic’ mode,” said his coach, Jason Kidd. “The game’s too simple, too easy. He makes it look too easy. Unfortunately, that’s what happens with some of the greats. We take for granted their talent.”
Is Doncic ready to stop snarling at officials, for all 48 minutes, and overcome knee and ankle injuries to win his first championship? Who knows what he’ll call Celtics fans at TD Garden — he described Rudy Gobert as a “Motherf—er, you can’t f—ing guard me!” before admonishing a Minnesota fan with the same insult — knowing he “gets going” after lashing others with verbal warfare? Doncic always bleeds from the same leg and eats nachos too often, but if his body would look better with 10 fewer pounds, no one cares at this point. He scored 73 points in a regular-season game and scored 39 or more 21 times. He’s only the second player with at least 10,000 points, 3,000 assists and 3,000 rebounds through his first 400 career games, joining Oscar Robertson. Those of us who wondered when he’d win titles have been hushed. He gave his Western Conference trophy to teammate Dereck Lively II.
“Here, you take it,” Doncic said.
He wants the Larry O’Brien variety, though people under 40 don’t know Larry O’Brien. He’ll also take the Bill Russell trophy as Finals MVP, joining Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo as early-2020s reminders that the world represents the league as much as America. “This is the international finals. Everybody is going to be watching,” said Irving, who sees himself as a new media member. For Slovenia, Doncic said Wednesday that he plans on playing in the Summer Olympics — IF his knee holds up. Thus begins a meaningful story for these Finals, realizing a killer injury would ruin the Mavericks. “It didn’t get any better,” he said of his issues during a six-day break.
The topic became Doncic’s athleticism. He doesn’t look athletic and often resembles an overweight wrestler, until he hits a flurry of three-pointers and rumbles through the lane before his all-encompassing dishes and boards. “No, I’m athletic in different ways they don’t see,” he said. “Not everything is jumping and running fast.”
It wasn’t necessary to point out he made the All-NBA first team for the fifth time in six seasons, becoming the first player to enter a Finals leading the league in playoff points, assists and rebounds. Kidd wanted to laugh at his press conference. “You said that. I didn’t. We believe he’s superathletic,” he said. “When you look at Luka’s basketball IQ and his understanding of the game, he’s at the head of the class. You look at the stage, he’s not afraid of it. He loves these moments. It’s really cool when you get to spend time with someone and see how they move around. That’s why we’re here. He’s playing both sides of the ball and playing defense at a high level. His offensive skills are pretty special, whether he’s playing inside or shooting the deep three.
“We’re in the Finals because of his IQ. It’s his willingness to step up and not be afraid to fail.”
In his mind, Doncic survives the playoffs in the manner of a Real Madrid champion. Sorry, Jerry Jones, but he’s not rooting for the Cowboys. The soccer force remains his dream, recalling the beginnings of his career playing for the team’s Baloncesto division at 16. “I won there, so it kind of stays with you,” he said. “Sometimes, you just remember those beautiful moments when you win.” When he hurts, he knows when a Real Madrid player has carried on. “I’d have to be unable to walk to miss one of these games. It’s part of my Real Madrid DNA,” he said, watching a victory Saturday over Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final.
Appreciate his bullish resilience. It’s absurd to compare his look to Jordan or Kobe Bryant or, in this series, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. His six triple-doubles this postseason overtakes them all. Luka Doncic is generational. He doesn’t glide in the air as much as you simply feel his 240 pounds, at all times. “Luka is at a spectacular, stratospheric level,” Hall of Famer Pau Gasol said this week. “What he has done … is within the reach of very few in the history of this sport.”
First, he must beat the Celtics, who went 64-18 and are 12-2 in the playoffs. “They're the best team in the NBA. They had by far the best record,” Doncic said. “They have some incredible weapons on offense and defense, so we're gonna have to play really hard and amazing basketball to beat them.”
Said Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, speaking of Doncic and the Mavericks: “You’ve just got to be very aware of what you’re willing to live with and what you’re willing to take away and when it’s time to adjust. There’s not one coverage. There’s not one player. It’s going to take multiple coverages. It’s going to take multiple players. It’s going to take a team effort.”
Still, the talk revolved around Irving. The press conference opened with LeBron’s comment, which also included: “Sitting here watching, I’m so f—ing happy and so proud to watch him continue his growth. At the same time, I’m so f—ing mad that I’m not his running mate anymore.”
“Is that the first question?” Irving said. “Oh, God, I love it. Got to love this, man.”
He smiled and thought about the eight years since hitting the winning shot for James and Cleveland. “Obviously, I’m in a different age, different place in my life. So is he,” Irving said. “I think we both have been able to mature and really appreciate what we got a chance to accomplish. I think there were some things that got in the way of our relationship when I was a little bit younger. Now that I’m able to vocalize how I feel as a man, be comfortable in it, stand on my square, my beliefs, where I’m coming from, I feel like our relationship’s different because of that now.
“Definitely miss him. Playing out there, just making things easier, being able to run up and down the floor, just throw the ball to somebody like that, throw it in the air, as athletic as they come. (I have) a mutual respect there for what we brought to the table. His leadership, my leadership style, I think it meshed very well. I was learning a lot from him that I’m appreciative of for the rest of my life.”
Said Holiday, on defending Irving: “Pray.”
Yet it sounds like the Celtics might allow Doncic to post his monstrous numbers and let things fly. Might it work when they have Tatum, Brown, Holiday, Derrick White and, for Game 1, Kristaps Porzingis? The Celtics are the favorites. Luka Doncic is the applicant.
If he wins, let’s not forget why.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.