By George Efkarpides/ info@eurohoops.net
The Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban is certainly an admirer of European basketball. Whoever had a player like Dirk Nowitzki in his team for a NBA record-breaking seasons would be on board. However, he now has one more reason to add on his opinion, which is none other than the NBA rookie sensation, Luka Doncic.
Eurohoops’ George Efkarpides talked with Cuban on the 19-year-old Slovenian, who put up a new NBA personal-high 32 points on Thursday. He is impressed with Doncic. Here is what he had to say:
-What are you most impressed about Luka Doncic? You guys had a pretty good idea when you drafted him but what’s the aspect that’s impressed you the most about him.
“He’s calm. He lets the game come to him. The moment’s never too big for him. You never see that in a rookie. Ever”.
-How important is it that he’s had top basketball experience outside the NBA?
“It is important because you’re used to people being older than you but I think he just learned how to play basketball and that’s the biggest gift. When you’re gifted as he is and you actually learn to play the game. If you look at the basketball education of kids starting at 11-years old in Europe and particularly Slovenia which is basketball oriented.
If we took our best kids and seven years before they are McDonald’s all-American, we sent them over to Slovenia to get an education, the league would be a thousand times better. They just learn how to play basketball while our guys learn how to dunk and put together mixtapes”.