The Dallas Mavericks’ decision to trade up for Luka Doncic in the 2018 NBA Draft has already had a massive impact on the franchise and the NBA. In six seasons, he’s made five First Team All-NBA teams, been to the Conference Finals twice, and the NBA Finals once. He’s had a historic start to his career and some have argued he’s already done enough to be a Hall of Famer.
ESPN has decided he’s also done enough to be named one of the 25 best NBA players of the 21st century, coming in at 25th. They’ve done a series of lists ranking the best overall athletes of the 2000s and are now breaking them down by sport. This NBA list is a continuation of the overall athletes list, so Dirk Nowitzki is still too far apart from Kevin Garnett.
Based on the accolades alone, one could argue that Doncic should’ve been placed higher, but he’s by far the youngest player on the list. The next closest player to Doncic in age is Nikola Jokic, who was in the 2015 NBA Draft and has three MVP awards and a championship.
Of the eight players directly ahead of Doncic, he has more All-NBA selections than six of them. The only thing missing for him is the championship or MVP win, but those should be coming in the near future. The players in front of him include Ray Allen, Pau Gasol, Manu Ginobili, and Draymond Green.
This is what ESPN’s Tim McMahon said of Doncic’s career thus far: “After Doncic danced and drilled the go-ahead 3 with seconds remaining in Game 2 of the 2024 Western Conference finals, he roared at Rudy Gobert: “You can’t f—ing guard me!” Gobert, a four-time Defensive Player of the Year, has plenty of company in that misery. The 25-year-old Doncic just had one of the most prolific statistical seasons in NBA history, averaging a league-high 33.9 points, 9.8 assists, and 9.2 rebounds per game, a combination never before accomplished. And only Michael Jordan has a higher career playoff scoring average than Doncic’s 30.9.”
Doncic is on pace to become one of the greatest players of all time once he gets over the hump and wins a championship and/or an MVP. He should’ve won it this season with his otherworldly averages but the media narrative was with Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander all season.
