By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
While Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic accepts the challenge of potentially evolving into the face of the NBA one day, he acknowledges that he still has quite the road to travel before getting to that destination.
“I mean, yeah of course,” Doncic said after a question regarding comments by former teammate Kristaps Porzingis that the Slovenian guard could become the face of the league once LeBron James retires. “But I got a long a way to go. There are a lot of things I have to do to be that. I’m a long way from there.”
Doncic faced Porzingis as an opponent Friday (1/4) for the first time after the latter was traded by the Mavericks to the Washington Wizards. The Latvian big man helped his current team blow out his former one 135 – 103 with 24 points and nine rebounds.
“It was cool to compete against my old team. They know my strengths and weaknesses and to see what they will take away, how they will play me… just to compete against a high-level team like Dallas was really cool.”
“It’s always fun to compete against your former team,” he added.
The game wasn’t that much enjoyable for Doncic, at least when it came to the final result. Luka finished with 36 points, seven rebounds and six assists but the Mavs’ defense was overwhelmed by the Wizards, especially in the fourth quarter when the hosts scored 42 points.
“We just got to get back on track. Talk about defense,” Doncic said. “Terrible defense. It’s simple,” he added about the cause of the Mavs’ defeat.