Luka Doncic is a promising Slovenian basketball player. From 2015 to 2018, he played for the Spanish basketball team Real Madrid. After that, Luca moved to the United States and started playing for the NBA club "Dallas Mavericks". At the end of the 2018/2019 season, he was named the NBA's best rookie.
Early biography
Luka Doncic was born in 1999 in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. His mother's name is Miriam Poterbin. In the past, she was a model and dancer, and now owns several beauty salons. Miriam's husband and Luka's father's name is Sasha Doncic. It is known that he was a basketball player and later a basketball coach.
In 2008, Luka's family broke up. The parents began to live separately, while the boy remained with his mother. But at the same time, he did not stop communicating with his father and, in fact, followed in his footsteps.
Luca began playing basketball at the age of seven. And when he turned eight, he became a member of the children's team of the Slovenian club Olympia. And from the very beginning, the coaches, seeing Doncic's exceptional abilities, allowed him to play with older guys. Ultimately Doncic got through all the junior levels and always stood out from his peers.
He signed his first sports contract at the age of thirteen. And his first "adult" professional match took place on April 30, 2015 - Luca entered the floor as part of the Spanish basketball club Real Madrid. And in this match he was undoubtedly the youngest player of Real Madrid - at that time he was 16 years old, 2 months and 2 days.
Pretty soon he became famous as one of the main basketball talents in Europe, and the Spanish newspaper "Marca" even called him "El Nino Maravilla" ("wonder boy").
Doncic took part in Real Madrid's 2015 FIBA Intercontinental Cup (and, by the way, this very club won it that year). In addition, he became the champion of Spain three times while playing in Real Madrid. And in the 2017/2018 season, Luca Doncic, as part of his Spanish team, became the winner of the Euroleague Cup.
Doncic in the NBA
In the 2018 NBA Draft, Luka Doncic was originally selected by the Atlanta Hawks. But the rights to the player eventually passed to the Dallas Mavericks. On July 9, 2018, Doncic signed a four-year contract with this club for an impressive amount of $ 32.6 million. And directly for the first season in the Dallas Doncic, in accordance with the terms of this contract, should have received $ 5.5 million.
He wanted to play at the Dallas number 7 club, but he was busy and Doncic had to settle for a double-digit 77 form.
It is also worth noting that before the start of the NBA 2018/2019 regular season, ESPN named the Slovenian basketball player as the main contender for the best newcomer prize, and Doncic lived up to these expectations.
The Slovenian debut in the NBA took place on October 17, 2018 in a match in which the Dallas Mavericks played against the Phoenix Suns. In this match, Luca earned 10 points and made 8 rebounds.
On October 29, 2018, the Dallas Mavericks fought the San Antonio Spurs. And in this meeting, Doncic was able to earn 31 points (thus, for the first time since his entry into the NBA, he overcame the bar of thirty points).
On January 21, 2019, Doncic, in a meeting with the Milwaukee Bucks team, realized his first triple-double in the NBA. A triple-double is a set by a basketball player during one match in three statistical indicators of at least 10 points. More specifically, Luca then scored 18 points, and also made 11 rebounds and 10 assists.
In total, in his first season in the NBA, Luka Doncic played 72 matches. And at the same time I was able to do a total of 8 triple-doubles. In addition, he averaged more than 20 points in one game, made more than 5 assists and 5 rebounds. This is a truly impressive result. Only four players before Doncic achieved such indicators in their debut season (we are talking about Oscar Robertson, LeBron James, Tyrek Evans and Michael Jordan).
In May, Doncic was named to the NBA's rookie rookie squad, and in June he received the Rookie of the Year Award. Luca became the second basketball player from Europe (after Spaniard Pau Gasol) to be awarded this award.
Playing for the Slovenian national team
In September 2016, Doncic announced that he plans to defend the colors of the Slovenian national team until the end of his career. And in 2017, he went to the EuroBasket as part of this team. Slovenes eventually won a gold medal here without losing a single match in the entire tournament.
Slovenia's rival in the quarterfinals was the Latvian national team. The score of this match in the end was as follows - 103: 97. And specifically Doncic earned 27 points for his team.
Slovenia defeated Spain in the semifinals - 92:72. In this game Doncic recorded 11 points, 8 assists and 12 rebounds.
And in the final, in which Slovenia was stronger than Serbia, Doncic did not score too many - only 8 points. However, this can be explained by the fact that in the third quarter of the game Doncic was injured and never again entered the court.
Personal life facts
Since 2016, the basketball player has been in a relationship with model Anamaria Goltes. It is known that her height is 177 centimeters. Considering that Doncic's own height is 203 centimeters, it turns out that Anamaria is 26 centimeters shorter than her famous boyfriend.
Luka has some interesting tattoos. The basketball player's left forearm has a tattooed image of a tiger and a phrase in Latin "Non desistas, non exeries" (in Russian it translates as "Don't give up, never give up").
In 2017, the basketball player got another tattoo - on his right side, he pinned the Cup, which was won by the Slovenian team at the Eurobasket (in shape, this Cup is a rather wide bowl inlaid with precious stones).
Doncic's godfather is former NBA player Radoslav Nesterovic.
Doncic has a Spitz dog named Hugo.
The athlete speaks several languages - Slovenian, Spanish, English and Serbian. Moreover, he learned Spanish during his time at Real Madrid.
Doncic himself believes that he has a good voice. In an interview, he said that if he had not been a basketball player, he would have become a singer.
