Tokyo 2020: Luka Doncic and his way to be one of the best in history

Mauricio Codocea

07/31/2021 9:00

• Clarín.com

• sports

Updated 07/31/2021 9:00 AM

The condition of "best in history" is debatable and not measurable, as it can be the "top scorer" or the "most winner" of all time.

Beyond its intangibility, there it is, always present.

He lacks a lot on the course, but that today Luka Doncic positions himself in the future, with what he does on the court, as a

candidate

name

for that title

in the world of basketball

speaks for itself.

In the triumphs against Argentina (world runner-up) and Japan, the Slovenian led his team to an Olympic start in this Tokyo 2020

better than that of the 92 Dream Team

, which may be (once again, debatable but not unspeakable) the best team of all time, the NBA Avengers, with Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson,

Larry Bird

and company.

With his 48 points against Luis Scola, Facundo Campazzo and company, he also reached - in his debut in the competition - the second best scoring record in the history of the Olympic Games, only behind the 55 of Oscar Schmidt.

Against the Asians he reached 15 victories in the same number of games with his team.

Yes: he

never officially lost

 (and he was already European champion in 2017).

🇸🇮 @ luka7doncic has never lost in a Slovenian jersey 🤯 Here are some of his best triples in a 14-0 run for his country!

# Tokyo2020 #Basketball 🏀 pic.twitter.com/AlNn7iUjTt

- FIBA ​​# Tokyo2020 (@FIBA) July 28, 2021

When it comes to records, Doncic already knows what it's like to break them in droves.

But it is known: that accompanies a trajectory, but

does not define it

.

For example, Jordan is not the highest scorer (he is 5th), he barely appears among the top 50 best assistants (47th), logically he was not an outstanding rebounder (142 °) ... He is only top 3 in number of steals ( 3rd).

He's not even the top winner (6 rings to Bill Russell's 11).

And yet, His Majesty's "best of all time" status is almost unanimous.

Precisely, because it was

much more than numbers.

What does Doncic offer, in the field of what escapes the statistical sheet?

Luka falls in love with even his peers who suffer it.

He does everything

with a frightening ease at times.

Doncic does not shrink.

He has the selfishness and arrogance necessary to be known as the savior of his own and the punisher of strangers.

So it doesn't matter to him if he wasn't able to score in the last two minutes of regulation time or if he started missing the extra time.

He is

unconscious

, he does not care about contexts, places or rivals.

He is capable of leaving even the best defenders in the NBA snubbed, be it

Kawhi Leonard

, Rudy Gobert, Giannis Antetokounmpo or

whatever they

are called.

It is a horse that does not need blinders: in its gaze there is only the rival hoop and its peripheral vision only allows it to get rid of the ball to offer an assist (in which it also stands out).

It has a change of pace, it has a brake, it has a starter.

He does not have excessive muscles, he does not need them to overcome in one against one because he does not impose himself from the physical but

from the talent.

Of course: in an NBA that is increasingly demanding on the body of its players (as a result of the fact that they push themselves to extreme limits), they should improve their physical condition because they have felt

tired

in long series in which they must wear the team on the shoulder, as in the last playoffs in the league.

Theirs is the comedy step, the fragile movement, the suddenness, the dynamics of the unexpected but also of the thought, with the problem for the rest that although they know what they are going to do,

they have no way to stop it.

Because Argentina, which has a top scouting team (rival analysis) in the world, changed the brand three or four times and never had solutions.

"Not even the most optimistic could predict it. I don't remember such a fast and strong impact in the NBA," Sergio Hernández told this newspaper

in 2018

, when Luka had just weeks in the league after dominating in Europe with Real Madrid, playing among the best professionals outside the NBA as a teenager.

In context

Doncic played Dirk Nowitzki and took over for the Dallas Mavericks.

Reuters photo

Possibly

no one, with such a young age, took such ownership of the scenarios in which he played.

At age 22, he has already been fourth in an NBA MVP vote (last year; this past season he was 6th). Jordan, LeBron James and Antetokounmpo won the award

at 24

; Kevin Durant, at

25

; Stephen Curry, at

26

; Magic Johnson, at

28

.

Among internationals, Doncic has

even more credentials

to get into the conversation of the best in history very early.

Considering those who have played in the NBA (how not to do it), it could be said that the Slovenian has already done more than

Drazen Petrovic

, who could not go any further because of the accident that cost him his life in 1993.

Collectively and in terms of success and influence, surely there was no other like Manu Ginobili,

Olympic champion

,

4-time NBA winner

and Euroleague champion.

Individually, it's difficult to take the top spot from

Dirk Nowitzki

, NBA champion, season and finals MVP, 14-time All-Star and 6th highest scorer in history.

Doncic's madness is that at 22 years old

he is already beginning to make a place among those legends

.

If health accompanies it (nothing more decisive, after all), who knows how far it can go.

Look also

Cade Cunningham, the No. 1 Draft who went vegan thanks to McDonald's and promises to revolutionize the NBA

NBA bombshell: Russell Westbrook will team up with LeBron James at Los Angeles Lakers