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Wins Rookie of the Year Award It didn’t take long for Dončić to mute the naysayers who questioned whether a European teenager’s game could translate to the punishing NBA style and survive the marathon schedule that has teams crisscrossing the country for half the year. Dončić had little trouble adjusting to the NBA, as evidenced by these gaudy numbers: he averaged more than 21 points a game, grabbed nearly eight rebounds a game, and averaged half a dozen assists on his way to becoming the second player from Europe to win the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award. Spain’s Pau Gasol was the first to do so with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2002. Dončić hoarded 98 of the 100 first-place votes to beat out Atlanta’s Trae Young for the honor. He is the second player in Dallas franchise history to win the award, joining Jason Kidd (now his head coach in Dallas), who shared the award with Grant Hill in 1995.

Luka Dončić’s first season in the NBA was filled with great play, as he was the runaway winner of the Rookie of the Year award in 2018–2019.

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