Ten years have passed since a young Slovenian who outgrew the youth ranks made his debut in the ACB League. Oddly enough, 2025-26 will be the tenth season as a professional for Luka Doncic. It will also be the start of his eighth NBA season, and his second with the Los Angeles Lakers, wearing yellow and purple since October for the first time in his career.
Luka Doncic is a different player. One that, regardless of the titles he has won at the end of his path, He will be remembered for his unique way of bringing unmatched talent to a basketball court.. In practically every game he leaves some memorable play. Despite being still young, there are many occasions in which his achievements and actions have transcended to go down in basketball history. At only 26 years old, Luka Doncic has already built a huge mountain of iconic moments.
The debut with Real Madrid
On April 30, 2015, in the last minutes of a decided match against Unicaja, Pablo Laso gave the opportunity to a very young Luka Doncic to make his professional debut. After having gone through the club’s lower categories since 2012 and having demonstrated impressive superiority in the game, the jump to the elite was inevitable. The Slovenian, who had already been training with the first team, He entered the court with a confidence inappropriate for a 16-year-old boy. In the next play something that seemed to be written from the beginning was demonstrated: he is a special player. He did not hesitate to throw the first ball he touched in his career. A triple that ended in, and a moment that has already gone down in the history of the Endesa League.
Continental gold with Slovenia
In a heroic feat, Slovenia was proclaimed champion of Eurobasket 2017. While it is true that the leader of that team was Goran Dragic, who at that time played for the Miami Heat, Luka Doncic was the second sword, one of the fundamental pillars of his team despite being only 18 years old. He was injured in the second half of the final against Serbia, but Slovenia would not have been able to reach that moment without him. With an average of 14 points and 8 rebounds and a historic performance in the quarterfinals against Latvia (27 points and 8 rebounds)a young Doncic established himself in this tournament as one of the great talents of the present and future in basketball and left glimpses of what was to come in his career.
The perfect cycle closure
Doncic ended his time at Real Madrid in the best possible way. An immaculate year that the Slovenian finished off with his first Euroleague title. His best game that season was against Olimpia Milano on matchday 3, where he scored 27 points, captured 8 rebounds and distributed 5 assists to finish the game with a PIR of 41, being the absolute leader of the whites in a difficult victory (100-91). With 16 points and 21 PIR per game, Doncic closed an incontestable European campaign by proclaiming himself the youngest EuroLeague Final Four MVP in history. At just 19 years old, Luka Doncic had already won everything there was to win on this continent.
The beginning of the American dream
Luka Doncic’s last year at Real Madrid was, truly, a perfect year. The Slovenian genius was not only champion and MVP of the Euroleague, but also won the Endesa League and was proclaimed MVP of said competitionbecoming the youngest player in history to do so. The jump to the NBA was as obvious as it was inevitable, since at 19 years old the Slovenian was already the best player in Europe. Several doubts regarding his defense and lack of athletic ability ended up sending him to number 3 in the 2018 Draft. despite having arrived in the United States as the best and most successful player in his class. He was chosen by the Atlanta Hawks, but traded that same night by the pick number 5, Trae Young. Doncic ended the night as a player for the Dallas Mavericks, which was his home for many years, and where he became a global superstar.
The dreamed Olympic debut
July 26, 2021 was a historic day in Luka Doncic’s career. He played his first match in the Olympic Games (Tokyo 2020), and He scored a whopping 48 points against Argentina (118-100), achieving the second highest mark in the history of the competitionvery close to the record of Brazilian Oscar Schmidt (55 points against Spain in 1988). In the tournament, Luka and the Slovenians came within a single point of an appearance in the Olympic final: 90-89 in the semifinals against France. However, in their next match against the French, at Eurobasket 2022, Doncic scored 47 points of his team’s 88 in a tight victory (82-88)and added another video game performance in a match that already belongs to the history of international basketball.
The most iconic game winner of the bubble
The bubble was one of the most unusual events in basketball history. The absence of the public in the pavilions made the games look like exhibition training sessions. The difference is that the NBA ring was at stake. In their first playoff series, when the Clippers led 2-1, Luka Doncic left us a shot to remember. In overtime of the fourth game, with four seconds left and one point down on the scoreboard, the Mavericks took a throw-in. Luka received the ball, danced before Reggie Jackson with two hand changes, performed his characteristic step back and scored a triple term to win the match. About the horn. The first game winner llegendary for the Slovenian genius in the best league in the world.
The best statistical night of his career
There are days when everything goes well. In some inexplicable way, something practically implausible happens; something that is forever remembered as an impossible feat, but it happened. Something similar to this happened in which seemed like just another night at the end of December 2022, with Luka Doncic as the protagonist. A perfect night against the Knicks. It was the first time he scored 60 points, but that wasn’t the most important thing. Never before had a 60-20-10 triple double been achieved. Luka ‘Magic’ made it happen. 60 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists to add what may be the best statistical line in history. The Mavericks were down by 9 with 44 seconds left, but somehow they got within two, and with two seconds left, Doncic missed his free throw on purpose, grabbed his rebound and tied the game with a basket in the air while falling to the ground. The Mavs had no rival in overtime. That night will be remembered as the night Doncic made the impossible possible.
The legendary night of 73 points
Some players have a special facility for scoring points. It’s something extraordinary, they make it so easy that it seems like anyone could do the same, but in reality they are chosen. Doncic is one of them, a player with immeasurable talent and a ridiculous ease at scoring points. It is no coincidence that he was the NBA’s top scorer in the 2023-24 season, with an average of 33.9 points per game, the youngest to achieve that milestone since Kevin Durant in the 2011-12 season. But despite scoring around 35 points each night, there was one that was a little more special than the others. On January 27, 2024, Luka Doncic achieved the highest personal best of his career. 73 points against the Atlanta Hawks, in a feat that reminded the world who the best scorer on the planet is.
The last big ball dressed in blue and white
Doncic won the hearts of Dallas as soon as he stepped on the court wearing the colors of the Mavs. He won Rookie of the Year in 2019 and showed the world that he had reached the elite and that his progression would hardly have a ceiling. In 2022 he led the Mavs to their first Conference finals, where they lost to the Warriors who would end up being champions that year. His ceiling in the franchise came in the 2024 playoffs, with Kyrie Irving as his squire. After having won 4-2 against the Clippers and the Thunder, the Mavericks faced the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Conference finals. With an average of 32.4 points, 9.6 rebounds and 8.2 assists, In addition to a decisive triple against Gobert in the second game, Doncic ate the wolf. A resounding 4-1 with which the Slovenian won the Conference Final MVP and a pass to his first NBA Finals.
The arrival to the Los Angeles Lakers
On February 2, 2025 something happened that left in shock to the world of basketball. Luka Doncic, one of the best players on the planet at that time, was traded to the Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis two and a half months before the start of the playoffs. It was something that no one understood, and that served as a wake-up call to all superstars of the NBA that seemed untouchable. Luka arrived in Los Angeles and made LeBron James, for the first time in his career, not his team’s first offensive option. On his return to Dallas, after an emotional tribute made by what was his home for six and a half seasons, Doncic transferred all his emotions to the court. 45 points accompanied by 7 triples for a game where he was cheered more by the public than the Mavericks players themselves. We don’t know where his ceiling is in the Lakers, but without a doubt, he has all the qualities to write a new chapter in the history of the most successful NBA franchise.
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