9781422271551

Chapter 1

Greatest Moments European Excellence A long and legend-filled list of basketball royalty has flowed into the National Basketball Association (NBA) from Europe through the years—Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Vlade Divac, and Pau Gasol, among them—but a certain sharp-shooting, slick-passing, do-everything guard from Slovenia is well on his way to becoming the best of the bunch. Luka Dončić arrived in Dallas via a draft day trade with Atlanta in 2018 and began destroying defenders and dazzling fans from the outset. Starting for the Mavericks at just 19 years old, he averaged more than 21 points a game during his first season and was the runaway winner of the 2019 NBA Rookie of the Year award. Among the many fabulous feats of his first year, Dončić produced eight triple-doubles , third-most by a rookie in NBA history behind Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson and 2018 Rookie of the Year Ben Simmons. Dončić’s arrival was accompanied by questions of whether his dominance in Europe, where he reigned as the EuroLeague’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) 7