Jmpasq wrote:

Gudris wrote:

Nice player indeed but not the best fit for this front court defensively . We would have to move Willy to the bench to get some speed and athletic ability at the 4

I like Doncic a lot but defense is my biggest concern about him too. That is why I prefer Michael Porter. But I still take Doncic if Porter is gone.

Knickoftime wrote:

NardDogNation wrote:

Welpee wrote:

TripleThreat wrote:

awe1028 wrote:You beat me to it. Doncic (and Michael Porter) is exactly why you root for the Knicks to lose a whole lot of games and get a whole lot of ping pong balls in the 2018 draft.

Depends on if you think the NBA draft is rigged or not. I believe it is, and based on that, my best guess is the Clippers and/or Minnesota will end up with the top two picks.

Less than 80 percent of all POTENTIAL playoff games were played last postseason. Why is that? Both conferences were very very top heavy. That's a lot of lost revenue. Cleveland will be gutted after this season, but Golden State has to drive Adam Silver nuts. They destroy everyone and they aren't that marketable. (not compared to some wannabe rapper who shoots up nightclubs and gets 15 stewardesses pregnant and has his own cologne and dunks over a car - you know the kind of players that NBA love to market with full swag and fervor)

If you are a new owner or an owner who spent big recently on a franchise, the NBA wants you to win. Because winning and winning FAST is an incentive for more non NBA owners to bid and bid crazy to get a team and hop on that ride. The Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars got extra picks their first year for a reason. If they both win and win fast, it ups the valuation of ALL FRANCHISES.

Ballmer spend TWO BILLION on the Clippers. Paul is gone and Griffin is probably going to get hurt. And they have no reason to be a treadmill team.

Minnesota can actually be in a position to slow down Golden State and drag out a series.

The league would have gift wrapped either Doncic or Porter to the Lakers if they had a pick. But they don't. Clearly the league wants the Lakers/Celtic rivalry to be reborn. Clearly LBJ and Paul George will end up on the Lakers next season.

Knicks have no chance at Doncic or Porter. Was there any doubt where Anthony Davis was going to go? Kyrie Irving? LBJ? Derrick Rose? This draft process is so rigged that people in the industry just joke about it in public now.

If the Knicks want top lottery picks from now on, Dolan has TO SELL THE TEAM FOR A RECORD PRICE, and the new ownership will be "gifted" some top lottery picks as the bounty for raising the value of all franchises with some stupid over the top offer.

And the Wizards got the #1 pick (John Wall) the draft after their owner Abe Pollin died in spite of having the 5th best odds.

...not to mention that John Wall is a DC product. Anytime there is a hometown kid with primere talent, the league seems to steer him home i.e. LeBron James to CLE, Derrick Rose to CHI, John Wall to DC, Lonzo Ball to LAL, etc. If it isn't under this pretense, there is some other compelling narrative i.e. the franchise losing its franchise player (e.g. LeBron to MIA; then Kyrie to CLE; CP3 to LAC; then Anthony Davis NOH/NOP; Elton Brand to PHI; then Blake Griffin to LAC; Kevin Love to CLE; then Karl Anthony Towns to MIN). Like the other skeptics, I think the draft is blatantly rigged.

Hmmm, I wonder why Howard wasn't drafted by the Atlanta, Westbrook wasn't drafted by the Clippers, or Griffin wasn't drafted by the Thunder.

Also wonder why teams like the Knicks put up with it.

Aside for the Hawks, none of those teams had a lottery pick in those respective drafts. As for the Knicks, does anything they do suggest that they care about winning? They turn massive profits anyway.

NardDogNation wrote:

Welpee wrote:

TripleThreat wrote:

awe1028 wrote:You beat me to it. Doncic (and Michael Porter) is exactly why you root for the Knicks to lose a whole lot of games and get a whole lot of ping pong balls in the 2018 draft.

Depends on if you think the NBA draft is rigged or not. I believe it is, and based on that, my best guess is the Clippers and/or Minnesota will end up with the top two picks.

Less than 80 percent of all POTENTIAL playoff games were played last postseason. Why is that? Both conferences were very very top heavy. That's a lot of lost revenue. Cleveland will be gutted after this season, but Golden State has to drive Adam Silver nuts. They destroy everyone and they aren't that marketable. (not compared to some wannabe rapper who shoots up nightclubs and gets 15 stewardesses pregnant and has his own cologne and dunks over a car - you know the kind of players that NBA love to market with full swag and fervor)

If you are a new owner or an owner who spent big recently on a franchise, the NBA wants you to win. Because winning and winning FAST is an incentive for more non NBA owners to bid and bid crazy to get a team and hop on that ride. The Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars got extra picks their first year for a reason. If they both win and win fast, it ups the valuation of ALL FRANCHISES.

Ballmer spend TWO BILLION on the Clippers. Paul is gone and Griffin is probably going to get hurt. And they have no reason to be a treadmill team.

Minnesota can actually be in a position to slow down Golden State and drag out a series.

The league would have gift wrapped either Doncic or Porter to the Lakers if they had a pick. But they don't. Clearly the league wants the Lakers/Celtic rivalry to be reborn. Clearly LBJ and Paul George will end up on the Lakers next season.

Knicks have no chance at Doncic or Porter. Was there any doubt where Anthony Davis was going to go? Kyrie Irving? LBJ? Derrick Rose? This draft process is so rigged that people in the industry just joke about it in public now.

If the Knicks want top lottery picks from now on, Dolan has TO SELL THE TEAM FOR A RECORD PRICE, and the new ownership will be "gifted" some top lottery picks as the bounty for raising the value of all franchises with some stupid over the top offer.

And the Wizards got the #1 pick (John Wall) the draft after their owner Abe Pollin died in spite of having the 5th best odds.

...not to mention that John Wall is a DC product. Anytime there is a hometown kid with primere talent, the league seems to steer him home i.e. LeBron James to CLE, Derrick Rose to CHI, John Wall to DC, Lonzo Ball to LAL, etc. If it isn't under this pretense, there is some other compelling narrative i.e. the franchise losing its franchise player (e.g. LeBron to MIA; then Kyrie to CLE; CP3 to LAC; then Anthony Davis NOH/NOP; Elton Brand to PHI; then Blake Griffin to LAC; Kevin Love to CLE; then Karl Anthony Towns to MIN). Like the other skeptics, I think the draft is blatantly rigged.

NYKBocker wrote:

fitzfarm wrote:

NardDogNation wrote:

Knickoftime wrote:

NardDogNation wrote:

Welpee wrote:

TripleThreat wrote:

awe1028 wrote:You beat me to it. Doncic (and Michael Porter) is exactly why you root for the Knicks to lose a whole lot of games and get a whole lot of ping pong balls in the 2018 draft.

Depends on if you think the NBA draft is rigged or not. I believe it is, and based on that, my best guess is the Clippers and/or Minnesota will end up with the top two picks.

Less than 80 percent of all POTENTIAL playoff games were played last postseason. Why is that? Both conferences were very very top heavy. That's a lot of lost revenue. Cleveland will be gutted after this season, but Golden State has to drive Adam Silver nuts. They destroy everyone and they aren't that marketable. (not compared to some wannabe rapper who shoots up nightclubs and gets 15 stewardesses pregnant and has his own cologne and dunks over a car - you know the kind of players that NBA love to market with full swag and fervor)

If you are a new owner or an owner who spent big recently on a franchise, the NBA wants you to win. Because winning and winning FAST is an incentive for more non NBA owners to bid and bid crazy to get a team and hop on that ride. The Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars got extra picks their first year for a reason. If they both win and win fast, it ups the valuation of ALL FRANCHISES.

Ballmer spend TWO BILLION on the Clippers. Paul is gone and Griffin is probably going to get hurt. And they have no reason to be a treadmill team.

Minnesota can actually be in a position to slow down Golden State and drag out a series.

The league would have gift wrapped either Doncic or Porter to the Lakers if they had a pick. But they don't. Clearly the league wants the Lakers/Celtic rivalry to be reborn. Clearly LBJ and Paul George will end up on the Lakers next season.

Knicks have no chance at Doncic or Porter. Was there any doubt where Anthony Davis was going to go? Kyrie Irving? LBJ? Derrick Rose? This draft process is so rigged that people in the industry just joke about it in public now.

If the Knicks want top lottery picks from now on, Dolan has TO SELL THE TEAM FOR A RECORD PRICE, and the new ownership will be "gifted" some top lottery picks as the bounty for raising the value of all franchises with some stupid over the top offer.

And the Wizards got the #1 pick (John Wall) the draft after their owner Abe Pollin died in spite of having the 5th best odds.

...not to mention that John Wall is a DC product. Anytime there is a hometown kid with primere talent, the league seems to steer him home i.e. LeBron James to CLE, Derrick Rose to CHI, John Wall to DC, Lonzo Ball to LAL, etc. If it isn't under this pretense, there is some other compelling narrative i.e. the franchise losing its franchise player (e.g. LeBron to MIA; then Kyrie to CLE; CP3 to LAC; then Anthony Davis NOH/NOP; Elton Brand to PHI; then Blake Griffin to LAC; Kevin Love to CLE; then Karl Anthony Towns to MIN). Like the other skeptics, I think the draft is blatantly rigged.

Hmmm, I wonder why Howard wasn't drafted by the Atlanta, Westbrook wasn't drafted by the Clippers, or Griffin wasn't drafted by the Thunder.

Also wonder why teams like the Knicks put up with it.

Aside for the Hawks, none of those teams had a lottery pick in those respective drafts. As for the Knicks, does anything they do suggest that they care about winning? They turn massive profits anyway.

I too believe the draft is rigged sometimes except If it was truly rigged knicks Would have gotten hometown Karl Anthony towns . But if we have pull in the rigging this year it would only make sense we get doncic. NYC is a melting pot of world cultures and we seem to be building a world power team.

KP Latvia
Willy Spain
Doncic Slovenia
Thjr USA
Frankie France

Wow talk the NBA world apple in the biggest market in the world .

If the draft lottery is truly rigged it would be wise to gift the knicks doncic it makes the most sense for the NBA's world appeal.

Do it silver, do it

I don't believe every draft is rigged but I do think the league has the ability and utilizes tools to steer things in a direction they think is benefitial to their product as a whole. Like I said in another post, there are way too many "concidences" that occur that produce the most compelling narrative possible: "compelling" meaning a storyline that generates league-wide interest and helps develop the scope of the brand.

That being said, Karl Anthony Towns being giftwrapped to NY, does nothing to achieve that end. The Knicks already dominate the NY sportsworld and beyond- good or bad. We even have a fanbase in other cities like ATL and MIA, so the league is already maximizing the Knick brand. Sending KAT to MIN though, helps to revitalize a devastated market that lost two franchise players in a six year span (KG and Kevin Love) and is still not too far removed from its infancy (the Wolves were a startup in the 90s). Add to the fact that Andrew Wiggins was already there to create one of the best young duos in the game and the fact that Glen Taylor has given subtle hints he's looking to put the team back on the market and it becomes to see why MIN was a better option than NY.

KP4Life wrote:yup he can be our point forward

PG Frank
SG THJR
SF Donic (if melo leaves hopefully)
PF:Willy/KP
C: Willy/KP

This will be a very slow azz starting line up moving in slow motion.

fitzfarm wrote:

NardDogNation wrote:

Knickoftime wrote:

NardDogNation wrote:

Welpee wrote:

TripleThreat wrote:

awe1028 wrote:You beat me to it. Doncic (and Michael Porter) is exactly why you root for the Knicks to lose a whole lot of games and get a whole lot of ping pong balls in the 2018 draft.

Depends on if you think the NBA draft is rigged or not. I believe it is, and based on that, my best guess is the Clippers and/or Minnesota will end up with the top two picks.

Less than 80 percent of all POTENTIAL playoff games were played last postseason. Why is that? Both conferences were very very top heavy. That's a lot of lost revenue. Cleveland will be gutted after this season, but Golden State has to drive Adam Silver nuts. They destroy everyone and they aren't that marketable. (not compared to some wannabe rapper who shoots up nightclubs and gets 15 stewardesses pregnant and has his own cologne and dunks over a car - you know the kind of players that NBA love to market with full swag and fervor)

If you are a new owner or an owner who spent big recently on a franchise, the NBA wants you to win. Because winning and winning FAST is an incentive for more non NBA owners to bid and bid crazy to get a team and hop on that ride. The Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars got extra picks their first year for a reason. If they both win and win fast, it ups the valuation of ALL FRANCHISES.

Ballmer spend TWO BILLION on the Clippers. Paul is gone and Griffin is probably going to get hurt. And they have no reason to be a treadmill team.

Minnesota can actually be in a position to slow down Golden State and drag out a series.

The league would have gift wrapped either Doncic or Porter to the Lakers if they had a pick. But they don't. Clearly the league wants the Lakers/Celtic rivalry to be reborn. Clearly LBJ and Paul George will end up on the Lakers next season.

Knicks have no chance at Doncic or Porter. Was there any doubt where Anthony Davis was going to go? Kyrie Irving? LBJ? Derrick Rose? This draft process is so rigged that people in the industry just joke about it in public now.

If the Knicks want top lottery picks from now on, Dolan has TO SELL THE TEAM FOR A RECORD PRICE, and the new ownership will be "gifted" some top lottery picks as the bounty for raising the value of all franchises with some stupid over the top offer.

And the Wizards got the #1 pick (John Wall) the draft after their owner Abe Pollin died in spite of having the 5th best odds.

...not to mention that John Wall is a DC product. Anytime there is a hometown kid with primere talent, the league seems to steer him home i.e. LeBron James to CLE, Derrick Rose to CHI, John Wall to DC, Lonzo Ball to LAL, etc. If it isn't under this pretense, there is some other compelling narrative i.e. the franchise losing its franchise player (e.g. LeBron to MIA; then Kyrie to CLE; CP3 to LAC; then Anthony Davis NOH/NOP; Elton Brand to PHI; then Blake Griffin to LAC; Kevin Love to CLE; then Karl Anthony Towns to MIN). Like the other skeptics, I think the draft is blatantly rigged.

Hmmm, I wonder why Howard wasn't drafted by the Atlanta, Westbrook wasn't drafted by the Clippers, or Griffin wasn't drafted by the Thunder.

Also wonder why teams like the Knicks put up with it.

Aside for the Hawks, none of those teams had a lottery pick in those respective drafts. As for the Knicks, does anything they do suggest that they care about winning? They turn massive profits anyway.

I too believe the draft is rigged sometimes except If it was truly rigged knicks Would have gotten hometown Karl Anthony towns . But if we have pull in the rigging this year it would only make sense we get doncic. NYC is a melting pot of world cultures and we seem to be building a world power team.

KP Latvia
Willy Spain
Doncic Slovenia
Thjr USA
Frankie France

Wow talk the NBA world apple in the biggest market in the world .

If the draft lottery is truly rigged it would be wise to gift the knicks doncic it makes the most sense for the NBA's world appeal.

Do it silver, do it

The draft isn't rigged. We're just the Knicks.

Tweet was deleted or there was problem with the URL:

https://twitter.com/kiaenzona/status/909505437485105152

martin wrote:Good read

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/20668236/there-never-nba-draft-prospect-slovenia-luka-doncic

There's never been an NBA draft prospect like Luka Doncic

HELSINKI, FINLAND -- Goran Dragic scrolled through his iPhone smiling ear to ear.

"Let me show you a picture," Dragic said. "It's crazy."

The photo featured Dragic, then a youthful 21-year-old point guard prospect, and nine of his Union Olimpija teammates, hoisting the 2008 Slovenian League championship trophy. At the center of the photo was Sasa Doncic, a 34-year-old veteran forward gripping the stem of the cup as his teammates celebrated around him, confetti flying through the air.

In the foreground of the photo stood Sasa's nine-year-old son in a green Olimpija jersey, gold medal around his neck, beaming with joy. Surrounded by his local heroes in Ljubljana, Slovenia, a small nation of only 2 million, the young ball boy was captured in a moment of bliss. His name: Luka Doncic.

Over the next four years Doncic would agree to a five-year deal with European basketball power Real Madrid. Under the tutelage of Spanish greats like Sergio Llull, Sergio Rodriguez and Real Madrid head coach Pablo Laso, a 17-year-old Doncic would win Euroleague and ACB Rising Star awards the following season, playing a sizeable role for arguably the 31st best basketball team in the world.

Nine years after that joyous 2008 moment, Doncic now stands 6-8, 228 pounds. He's one day removed from donning a 2017 Eurobasket gold medal, and arguably the most accomplished 18-year-old European prospect of all time.

He's also a legitimate candidate to go No. 1 in the 2018 NBA draft, which no European perimeter player has ever done.

Doncic was raised on the hardwood, sweeping Slovenian gym floors at almost every one of his father's games and sneaking in as many halftime jumpers as he could. The godson of long-time NBA big man Rasho Nesterovic, Doncic had a basketball in his hands since he was seven months old. His father was a talented, creative and well-respected player in Slovenia, and on the court Doncic took after his old man with his crafty style of play and charisma. Well before Doncic even hit puberty, it was clear that he was different. The way he handled the ball, passed with precision and shot with touch and rotation caught the eyes of his coaches and peers.

"Even at that age you could see he had a great feeling for the ball like his dad," said Dragic, who played 109 official games with Sasa over the course of three seasons, spanning two clubs. "He would always sit under the basket. Every time at halftime when we came out from the locker room he would always be shooting the ball. I always have this memory."

Doncic first began playing organized basketball with his primary school team at Mirana Jarca in Ljubljana around age 7. When his father left Slovenian club Domzale for powerhouse Union Olimpija in 2007, Doncic went with him. Olimpija Basketball School coach, Grega Brezovec, was a longtime friend of Sasa and Doncic's mother, Mirjam Poterbin, and invited Doncic to practice with the 1999-born generation.

A skinny, happy-go-lucky eight-year old, Doncic was so dominant at his first Olimpija practice that the coaching staff moved him up to the 1996-born group only 16 minutes into the training session. After a full practice with the older kids, Doncic was then bumped up to the Olimpija selection team, where he'd develop over the course of the next few years, regularly competing against players three and four years his senior.

Due to league rules, the 8-year-old Doncic wasn't allowed to compete at the under-14 level, but he tore through his own age group and played a role off the bench on the under-12 team as well. Eager to spend as much time on the court as possible, Doncic would beg his parents to go practice with the older teams on his off days.

"I often told Luka, 'Tomorrow you are free -- be at home, play with your toys or something, you have to rest,'" said Jernej Smolnikar, Doncic's selection team coach from 2007 to 2011. "The next day at 12 his parents would call me saying, 'Please can Luka come to practice, he's begging to play.' His passion to compete was unbelievable."

By age 12 Doncic was well into his ascension to childhood prodigy status, dominating under-12 and under-13 tournaments in Slovenia and all across Europe. Then a 6-2 do-it-all combo guard with remarkable vision and a unique feel for the game, Doncic was a walking triple double who liked to organize the game yet was capable of scoring outbursts any time.

Doncic was more physically gifted and skilled than all of his peers, and many of his elders, but it was his mental makeup, competitive nature and incredible basketball instincts that impressed most at that age. Whether it was an innate characteristic or a product of growing up around the game, the Slovenian sensation was wired differently -- joyous and full of life, yet confident with a killer mentality. Quick outlet passes, behind-the-back finds in transition, perfectly timed skip passes over the top of the defense -- Doncic had all of the tricks, and the basketball savvy of a seasoned vet.

"He had this from the moment he was born," said Lojze Sisko, the director of Union Olimpija's youth program and Doncic's under-12 coach for his final season before leaving for Spain. "You can't learn this, what he was doing. No way you can teach some players or somehow give them this knowledge. It's impossible.

"The most unbelievable thing for me was how he can change his personality. He was always confident on the court. Always had a desire to win. Very focused on the court but when the match finished he was an amazing little boy. He was always smiling, joking with the kids. He had a magnetic personality at that age."

Doncic was invited by Real Madrid youth sports director Alberto Angulo to compete with the prestigious club in the Minicopa tournament, a junior version of the well-known Spanish competition, Copa Del Rey. Playing with a set of unfamiliar faces, Doncic shined for Real Madrid, scoring 20 points in the final versus rival Barcelona.

After his strong performance the interest between Real Madrid and Doncic heightened, as did the Slovenian's play when he returned back to Ljubljana. In April of 2012, the 13-year-old Doncic went off for 54 points (39 in the first half), 11 rebounds and 10 assists in the championship game of the under-13 Lido di Roma tournament, where he won MVP honors.

"In this moment I told someone that he reminded me of a young Drazen Petrovic," said longtime Olimpija basketball chief Srecko Bester. "He was a killer with a baby face. It was so easy for him."

Doncic's performance earned him a deal with Real Madrid, which didn't have many foreigners close to Doncic's age in the youth program at the time, aside from 1998-born Brazilian center and fellow draft prospect Felipe Dos Anjos. The Doncic family had several suitors all over Europe, but Real Madrid made the most sense given its strong development program, educational infrastructure and rich basketball history.

"It was hard, really hard, especially the first two, three months," Doncic said. "I didn't have my parents there. But I was connected with all the other players. I was 13 and I needed it to prepare for all of this now and I want to say thanks to God that I'm here now."

Doncic started to learn Spanish, adapt to the culture in Madrid and progress quite rapidly as a player. Real Madrid has incredible facilities for youth soccer and basketball prospects, and is arguably the most desirable landing spot for young athletes in all of Europe. Doncic took full advantage of the club's infrastructure, won MVP of the 2013 Minicopa and began to realize his long-term potential when he started producing against players three and four years older than him, just as he had done in Ljubljana.

Practicing with the senior team, Doncic soaked up every bit of information he could from Spanish legends like Llull and Rodriguez. Then he really broke out on during the 2015-16 season.

CSKA Moscow mainstay and former Euroleague defensive player of the year Kyle Hines remembers first seeing a 16-year-old Doncic on the personnel report as the Russian powerhouse prepared for a game against Real Madrid in January 2016.

"I looked at my scouting report and thought to myself, this kid is 16 years old?" Hines said.

With Llull, Real Madrid's star guard, out due to injury, Doncic was likely to play extended minutes. The CSKA coaching staff wanted to test the teenage Doncic defensively while forcing him to beat them from the perimeter on the other end. Expecting the young Slovenian guard to struggle with the magnitude of playing in a road Euroleague game, CSKA went under every ball screen, defending Doncic "Ricky Rubio style," as Hines explained.

Doncic made 3 triples in a two-minute, second-quarter stretch, finishing with 12 points and five rebounds in 13 minutes, proving to Hines and CSKA that his thirst for pressure existed even in the Euroleague. The same poise and confidence that characterized him at the youth level carried over to the second-best league in the world, and Doncic posted per-40-minute averages of 13.7 points, 8.0 rebounds and 5.8 assists while shooting 61.8 percent from 2 and 37.3 percent from 3 in 51 ACB and Euroleague games that season.

After spending some of his 2016 summer in Santa Barbara with P3 Sports Science, a data-driven performance company that works with the NBA's top athletes, Doncic returned to Madrid even more physically mature. The 17-year-old made yet another jump in his physical and skill development, proving early on in the season that he deserved an increased role on an already loaded Real Madrid team.

"It was like the first practice, he came down the lane and dunked it out of nowhere," said former NBA lottery pick and 2016-17 Real Madrid newcomer, Anthony Randolph, who also played on the Slovenian national team as a naturalized citizen. "I was like, 'God damn, he's only 17? It was pretty amazing.'"

Randolph has played with some of the top international prospects in the last decade. Whether it's Ricky Rubio, Evan Fournier, or Danilo Gallinari, the former LSU standout has seen his share of high-level European talent, but none have accomplished what Doncic has at this age. While Rubio was a childhood sensation and FIBA youth monster characterized by no-look passes and electric transition play, he didn't have quite the Euroleague or ACB impact of Doncic. Gallinari averaged 14.9 points per game in 11 Euroleague games for Milano in 2007-08, but the majority of that came as a 19-year-old. At 18 Fournier was playing only 14 minutes per game in France Pro A.

"I don't want to give him a big head, but I think he's probably one of the best talents that I've ever seen, especially at his age," Randolph said. "It's unbelievable. Just for his size, the way that he handles the game, the way that he carries himself on and off the court. He's just so versatile. I mean, the kid can damn near average a triple double when he figures it out."

Doncic's production given his age is unprecedented. Playing half the season as a 17-year-old, he was the only player in the Euroleague last season to average at least 15 points, eight rebounds and eight assists per 40 minutes. Although he struggled in the Euroleague final four, Doncic carried a strong season into Eurobasket play, producing like a 10-year veteran for a Slovenian team that shocked all of Europe on its way to a gold medal win over Serbia.

In an Istanbul arena loaded with NBA scouts and executives, Doncic scored 27 points on 14 shots in the quarterfinals versus Kristaps Porzingis and Latvia. Two days later the 18-year-old went for 11 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists in an upset win over Spain in the semifinals, shining in virtually every aspect against the likes of Rubio, Marc and Pau Gasol and an extremely talented Spain team. He went down with a sprained ankle injury in the third quarter of the gold medal match, but Doncic's entire nine-game Eurobasket performance will go down as one of the most impressive runs from a prospect in the event's history. Playing alongside one of his childhood idols in Dragic, Doncic regularly craved the spotlight, delivering late in games and playing with little worry in crunch time.

"For him it's natural," said Igor Kokoskov, Slovenian national team head coach and longtime NBA assistant. "He's fearless. He loves to compete. He loves to be on the biggest stage."

"I feel like I want to be the hero of the game, you know?" Doncic said. "Every time I wanted the ball in my hands, from the very beginning. I have missed some important shots before but you need to learn from this. You need to move on. If you have a nice game or a bad game, you will have a thousand more games."

He's handled the pressure-cooker that comes along with being a childhood prodigy with tremendous poise to this point, producing at an extremely high level against NBA-caliber talent. Very few "boy wonder" types live up to the usually-lofty expectations. Many fizzle out, peaking too early or falling victim to the hype. As has been the case since those early days with Union Olimpija, Doncic seems to be an exception.

"I've seen a lot of players, they get hyped and then they kind of lose control," said Dragic, who is mentoring the 18-year-old like Steve Nash mentored him 10 years ago in Phoenix. "It gets in their heads. In a few years you don't even hear from them anymore. I don't think that's going to happen with Luka."

The nine-year-old boy from Dragic's photo has evolved into Real Madrid's crown jewel, the pride of Slovenia and one of this year's top draft prospects. Over nine years after standing with his idols in Ljubljana and watching his father hoist the Slovenian league trophy, Doncic hobbled on one foot and gathered with teammates of his own in Istanbul. Dragic put the understudy on his back and paraded him through the arena, passing the torch to Slovenia's next star.

Between now and June, Doncic will be compared to the late ex-Yugoslavian legend Drazen Petrovic and touted as arguably the best international prospect ever many times. Scouts will flock to Madrid, exhaust every contact that they have in Spain and Slovenia and study his film dating back to that tiny gym one hour north of Venice. True Luka Doncic mania is just beginning for everyone else, but the journey from Ljubljana to Madrid has prepared him for what lies ahead.

Ahh sold, as the jets suck for Sam. The knicks should suck for doncic. Talk about creating the ultimate international superstar team with KP,Willy,doncic,Frankie that would be a powerhouse team in the east for many many many years . Maybe we can steal pop to coach them hahahaha

Jrshoops wrote:Doncic looks like the truth! With 3 white guys starting though, looking a little 80's Celtics lol

The ironic part is that our whole front office is black and most of our players would be white. I did think that Doncic/KP/Willy kind of reminds me of Bird/McHale/Parish and I guess Frank/Tim is sort of like Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge. I do also agree that Blatt would definitely be our next coach after Hornacek, it makss way too much sense, especially when you take into account his relationship with Mills. Btw, my favorie part of that article was:

For him it's natural," said Igor Kokoskov, Slovenian national team head coach and longtime NBA assistant. "He's fearless. He loves to compete. He loves to be on the biggest stage."

This dude was born to be a Knicks star. It has to happen!

Exactly the type of player the Knicks need, a finisher.