‘Grown men deferred to Luka Doncic at Real Madrid’: Mavericks owner Mark Cuban opens up on what convinced them to go all-in for their Slovenian superstar

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has never been shy to let people know how happy he is with drafting Luka Doncic.

Very rarely does a 19-year-old kid enter the league and take it by a storm. One of such special cases was with the Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic. At the young age of 21, Luka is set to be the face of the league in the coming years.

Cuban once had hilariously stated how he would choose Luka Doncic over his own wife. Cuban has always appreciated Doncic for the leadership qualities he had.

On a podcast, a few months back, Mark Cuban states what convinced him to go ‘all-in’ on drafting Luka in the 2018 NBA Draft. Mark told Bill Simmons:

“I remember watching that (EuroLeague), and I wasn’t so much watching the video. It was watching the players that he played with deferring to him (Luka). I mean, grown men who had been in those leagues and in the NBA for years, wanting the balls in his hands. That’s all I needed to see. That was incredible to me. Luka is his own guy, setting his own path.”

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‘Mavericks will go as far he takes us’: Mark Cuban on Luka Doncic

For an established entrepreneur like Mark Cuban, self-awareness is something that admires him. He’s often stated that a leader should know what he sucks at. For him, leaders also have to continuously improve every single year, being disciplined and hard work. Luckily for the Mavericks, they got what they were looking for in the 6-foot-7 guard.

Cuban also stated that the Mavericks would go as far as Luka would take them. He added:

“You never really know the chemistry and mental wiring of a player until they’re in those circumstances, and Luka just had that mental wiring.”

“He wants to be the best and he will work his a** off to get there and he’s demanding of the people around him and he’s demanding of himself. When you got that combination along with skill and talent, then that’s when special things happen.”

If you were to create the prototypical offensive player in 2020, it’d be Luka. @mcuban explains to @BillSimmons what they saw in Doncic. #BSPodcast pic.twitter.com/nW8RJaIetu

— The Ringer (@ringer) December 16, 2020

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Over the past few years, the Slovenian boy has performed incredibly well and has definitely played beyond his expectations. A few things that can’t be taught to an NBA player are his will to improve, work hard, and his self-awareness. Luka fits in all those categories what is looked for in a superstar.