Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic has put up historic numbers through first two NBA seasons, producing one of the best starts to a career the league has ever seen, and he’s just 26 years old.
On 2020, the Slovenian icon finished with the second-highest scoring average (24.2 points per game) by a player before his 21st birthday in league history, only second to teammate LeBron James (25 ppg).
Doncic also produced 21 of his franchise-record 25 triple-doubles – when he was with the Dallas Mavericks – before his 21st birthday, by far the most by a player before turning 21 in NBA’s history. He’s reached the NBA Finals once – 2024 – but he’s looking to get that first ring with the Lakers.
Luka destroys an opponent in a game of chess
Overtime spent 24 hours with Luka Doncic in China during a photo shoot for the Jordan brand before he got traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in early February. The European superstar got to talk about anything from fishing, the Jordan Luka 4’s – his newest release with the brand – and the game of basketball.
As part of the shooting, the Overtime reporter decided to challenge Doncic to a game of chess and things didn’t go well for the challenger. Luka, who’s known for being a silent killer on the court, took his basketball skills to the table and annhilitated the competition.
Doncic denied being a good chess player but he did warned the reporter that he had chess tournament experience as a kid. He decided he was better at basketball, though. The challenger did mentioned the fact that he was not very good at it. And it showed: he got beat in least that two minutes with only five moves.
“Take it easy on me a little bit.” the reporter told Luka, but Doncic was not about to take things lightly as he was being as agressive as he could. “It’s over.” the Slovenian basketball player said as he laughed at his competitor. “Do you got that on film?” he asked. “Tjhat’s how I thought it would be.” the reporter replied.
“So Luka just crushed me, made me feel like I’m an idiot because he basically was five steps ahead of me every move, I really need to work on my chess game and I am going to try to not be too upset about it. This is pretty embarrassing but, all on all, Luka was very chill, super down to Earth, a normal guy, just really, really good at basketball.” he added.
Luka and the Lakers want to fight for the championship
Luka Doncic was introduced as the latest star in a constellation of many throughout Lakers history early February, with one goal of mind: strive for greatness, give Los Angeles a chance to compete for an NBA championship and start a great new story for the face of the league.
“I think Luka Doncic joining forces with the Los Angeles Lakers is a seismic event in NBA history,” summarized Lakers VP of Basketball Operations Rob Pelinka. “The reason I say that is because we have a 26-year-old global superstar that’s going to get on the stage with the most popular and influential basketball brand on the globe.
“I think when those two powerful forces come together, it brings basketball joy to the world, because that’s how Luka plays. He plays with joy. If you think about kids in Barcelona, or kids in Buenos Aires, or children in Shanghai or Sydney, they’re going to be wearing a No. 77 Luka Doncic Lakers jersey and bringing joy to basketball, just like he does. And that’s why it’s powerful.”
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