By Alex Madrid/ info@eurohoops.net
Kevin Durant has an interesting take about Luka Doncic and the reason for his performance so far in the NBA.
“He’s playing great ball,” Durant said according to ESPN. “Definitely for a 19 year-old to average 20 [points], six [rebounds] and five [assists] is definitely numbers you can look at and consider him for an All-Star selection, but there’s so many great players out there at his position so you never know but just his poise for the game, his stepback three — that’s what he wants to get to most of the time. He’s big and strong, can pass, can play in the pick and roll. He played in Europe last season. The rest of the rookie class played in college. So he’s in the second best league in the world learning how to play the game. He didn’t have to go to class, study hall, none of that extra stuff the rest of the guys had to go through, he was just focusing on his game probably since he was 14 years old. So that’s an advantage for him and you could tell that he’s not shy, he’s not afraid of the moment. And he’s going to be a force.”
While Durant has a point when saying that Doncic was focused on his game since an early age, the young Slovenian player was also studying for his classes during his tenure with Real Madrid. If he wanted to attend college, this season is the first year that he would have been eligible to enroll after getting his highschool diploma.
However, while Doncic has completed the obligatory years of study by Spanish Law, he chose not to prepare for “selectividad”, the Spanish equivalent of the SAT exams.
It’s true that under the structure of most European basketball Academies, studies can take a back seat to basketball for teenagers with talent. Contrary to the NCAA, there are no limits to the hours of practice, or academic demands for the young players, even if in the case of Real Madrid, a certain level of academic performance is obligatory.