Dallas Mavericks Star Luka Doncic Named Euroleague All-Decade Nominee

Luka Doncic’s emergence as one of the top performers early this season brought him to the MVP conversation along with other contenders like LeBron James, James Harden, Anthony Davis, and reigning MVP Giannis Antetokoumnpo.

Before his jaw-dropping performances in the NBA, the 20-year old sophomore first plunged into the basketball scene in Euroleague where he was endeared to the fans as “Boy Wonder”. His achievements in Europe’s top-tier league earned him a nomination to the Turkish Airlines Euroleague All-Decade Team posted on the league’s site and their social media outlets.

Doncic is known to being a young achiever back in Europe. According to an ESPN feature, he was dominating his age group that Union Olimpija, a powerhouse team in his native Slovenia, was forced to practice with players that are older than him. At eight years old, he’s already used to playing with and against players that are four years older than him and he felt so comfortable playing the game, his parents would call their coach to let Luka practice with older teams because “he’s begging to play” even on rest days.

At 13 years old, he was signed to a five-year contract with Real Madrid and his career started to take off from there. He was named the EuroLeague’s Rising Star, as well as the Spanish ACB League Best Young Player award during the 2016-2017 season when he was only 17. The following season, he was again awarded as EuroLeague’s Rising Star, the youngest EuroLeague MVP, and Liga ACB MVP.

After making his own name in Europe, he was drafted third overall by the Atlanta Hawks in the 2018 NBA Draft before shipping him to the Dallas Mavericks. He finished the season winning the Rookie of the Year honors after placing fourth in the triple-double count – the only players who had more than him were Russell Westbrook, Nikola Jokic, and Ben Simmons. He was also the first European who was named as the top rookie since 2002 when Pau Gasol achieved the same feat.

Other than Doncic, EuroLeague also named other former NBA pros as nominees to their all-decade team – Andrei Kirilenko, Nando De Colo, Sonny Weems, Alexey Shved, Nenad Krstic, and Viktor Khryapa.