Luka Doncic has made a place for himself among the biggest stars in the NBA on his own merit. At the beginning of its fifth season in the United States Nobody doubts that the Slovenian is one of the best players in the world. But it was not always like this. When he crossed the pond, not everyone was so convinced of his quality or that he had a sufficient level to be a benchmark in the best league in the world. One of them, we just found out, was Kevin Durant.
The Nets forward has confessed in an interview the opinion he had about Doncic when he came to the NBA in 2018. During the first months he did not understand the commotion that was being created with him, he did not see the qualities to hold him in such high esteem: “At first I didn’t like it. when he got to the league because he was like “He only shoots step-back triples and his shooting is terrible.” At the beginning I was shooting like 27% or 30% on triples. It was like: ‘Is this the guy…?”.
but there was a day in which his idea of Doncic changed radically, a match in which he faced him when he was still playing for the Golden State Warriors. From that moment Durant realized what that young Slovenian was capable of: “When he was at Golden State, he hit us like 40 and he was controlling every possession. He was like: ‘Yeah, he’s good’. The truth is Doncic never scored 40 points against the Warriors in his first season. We do not know which of the four games in which they faced off against the Mavs he is referring to. The one that stayed closest to 40 was the third, on January 13, 2019 in Dallas. Doncic did 26 points with 5/10 on triples, 6 rebounds and 5 assists in 32 minutes, although the Mavs would end up falling to the defending champions by 5 points. It may also refer to the first game between the two, on November 17, 2018, when the Mavs did beat the Warriors by 3, with 24 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists from Doncic, although in this case with a 2/8 in triples.
All of that was four years ago. In 2022 Durant has no doubts about the Slovenian: “It’s tough because it goes from slow to fast very easily. He is very fluid with the ball. i love your game”. Durant’s word.