Luka Doncic, who’s injured despite being in the middle of his most MVP-worthy campaign so far, got some solid praise from a former teammate.
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The Slovenian superstar recently became the first player since Anthony Davis to make 4 All-Star Games before 24. Doncic was the 2nd-most popular Western Conference guard in voting this year, closely following Stephen Curry.
The Western Conference starter pool for the 2023 NBA All-Star Game:
• Stephen Curry
• Luka Dončić
• LeBron James
• Nikola Jokić
• Zion WilliamsonJames will be a team captain because he is the All-Star starter from the West with the most fan votes. pic.twitter.com/OWD2N2Imhc
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) January 27, 2023
Doncic made his first deep playoff run last year, leading the Mavs to the Conference Finals. This involved a road Game 7 performance that saw Dallas blow out Phoenix at the Footprint Center.
There was an outside chance of Doncic taking MVP honors if he’d played more games last season. Though the award went to Jokic ultimately, Doncic made sure his name was stamped in regular season history. He became the youngest player to average 28/8/8 for 3 straight seasons.
JJ Redick calls Luka Doncic the most confident player he’s ever seen
Pardon My Take host Big Cat and former NBA player JJ Redick sat down for a podcast segment earlier this week. The duo talked about Luka Doncic while comparing his confidence to that of Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow:
“(Luka Doncic is) Never afraid of any moment. Never gonna back down, there’s no agenda other than trying to win the moment.”
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The duo also compared how Doncic lifts his teammates for momentous occasions in much the same manner as Joe Burrow does for his Cincinnati Bengals.
Big Cat tips Doncic to win MVP honors over Nikola Jokic
Nikola Jokic is on the verge of averaging a triple-double while making 60+% of his field goals and leading his Denver Nuggets to the no. 1 seed this year. His play has a lot of people excited about a possible MVP threepeat.
However, Big Cat isn’t quite among those people who believe Jokic will take the honors for a third straight time. In his mind, Jokic is going to suffer from voter fatigue, and Doncic will be the beneficiary:
“I think that he’s (Jokic) is not gonna win the 3rd MVP because I think the voters are human. And with the Nuggets not going deep in the playoffs, voters get fatigue. And I’m not saying this is right, I think he deserves the MVP.”
“Like Michael Jordan should’ve won MVP every year in the 90s. There’s certain levels of just the human element, where they like the new thing. So they’re probably gonna vote for Luka Doncic, wouldn’t you say?”