Kyrie Irving on Luka Doncic: ‘One of the best to ever play the game’

Following the Mavericks’ four-point victory over the Sacramento Kings on Friday, star player Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks expressed his admiration for teammate Luka Doncic.

Even though Doncic only turned 25 this month, he has already made more personal accomplishments than the majority of NBA players do in their whole careers. He has won Rookie of the Year, been selected for four NBA All-Star teams, and been an All-Star five times.

In his sixth NBA season, Doncic is averaging a league-best 33.8 points per game, 9.1 rebounds, and 9.8 assists per game thus far in the 2023–24 regular season. His field goal percentage is 48.7 percent, and his 3-point percentage is 37.6 percent.

He finished the game with 26 points, nine rebounds, 12 assists, and two steals in the Mavericks’ victory over the Kings on Friday. Irving, meanwhile, scored 30 points on well-made shots to lead the club in scoring.

Additionally, Dallas’ triumph was the team’s sixth straight victory. The only team in the NBA with a longer winning streak at the moment is the Houston Rockets, who have been winning 11 games straight since the beginning of the month.

Due to their recent performance, the Mavericks are now ranked as the sixth seed in the Western Conference. Dallas is now potentially within reach of a first-round home-court advantage and a top-four seed in the playoffs, as the team trails the Los Angeles Clippers — the conference’s best team.

However, Doncic and the Mavericks have a challenging matchup coming up. In a game between two of the hottest teams in the NBA in March, they will take on the Rockets on Sunday.

Even though Doncic is unquestionably among the top players in the game right now, it’s debatable if he should be regarded as an all-time great just yet given that he hasn’t made it to the NBA Finals since joining the league prior to the 2018–19 season.

While Sacramento will always remember this pick as a swing and a miss that cost the team years, Atlanta will always associate Doncic with Young. How on how could the global game-savvy general manager of the Kings at the time, Vlade Divac, miss out on Luka Doncic? (Or, frankly, it would have been wiser to choose any of the next three players).

That leads us to Friday night, when Dallas sweeps Sacramento in two games, virtually guaranteeing the Kings a trip to the play-in round. With 4.1 seconds remaining, Luka Doncic made a pair of free throws to secure the victory. He then waved to Divac and was heard stating, “He should have drafted me.”

Long-running rumors claim that Divac had a falling out with Doncic’s father, which prevented him from selecting Doncic. Divac has vehemently refuted that.

The more likely explanation is that Divac violated one of the most important NBA draft guidelines, which is to select the best player available, regardless of position (how much ownership factored into that choice is debatable). Having selected De’Aaron Fox, a future All-Star and All-NBA point guard, last year, Divac opted to take Bagley as a big man to complement Fox instead of selecting another ball handler like Doncic or Young. Bagley never flourished in Sacramento, and the team suffered until it had to go with a top player as a result of that selection.