Luka Doncic has been gaining much hype, especially after his 73-point game against the Atlanta Hawks this season. The Dallas Mavericks guard has been on a red-hot streak, adding his career triple-doubles tally up to 67 this season. The NBA community and Mavs coach Jason Kidd have enough claims to glorify Doncic as experiencing the peak of his career at the moment.
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However, San Antonio Spurs legend and 4x NBA champion Tony Parker disagrees with Coach Kidd glorifying Doncic beyond reason. In his show SK Week, Parker called Kidd one of the best point guards and a legend in the NBA but disputed his remarks on Luka Doncic to be wrong for the moment.
As Parker argues, the NBA has changed the rules in the league to allow players to show more of their offensive prowesses. The Spurs veteran said in his show,
“It’s true that his statistics are unbelievable. But it’s because the NBA wanted that because they changed the rules. We talked about that with Dwyane Wade this summer; you can’t defend anymore. It’s tough to defend because of the new rules, so it’s easier to score a lot of points, you have more possession.”
Parker agreed that despite the new rule changes that make scoring easier, putting 73 points in a game is not easy. In fact, Luka agreed that it wasn’t as easy for him to play a 70-piece game against a Hawks team, which is defensively rated 12o in the NBA. However, bringing down the comparison to Mavs’ European legend Dirk Nowitzki, Parker said, “Until Luka wins a title, don’t compare him to Dirk.”
Parker highlighted how winning a championship in the NBA has always been as tough as ever. Dirk Nowitzki was a legendary player for the Mavs and helped the Dallas-based team win the first championship in their history in 2011. This gives Parker enough of a case to hold the German Wunderkind as the greatest European player in the history of the league. However, as superstar players with a proven winning record grow older, the pressure and the difficulty of winning championships still remain the same.
LeBron James and Stephen Curry have both won four championships in their storied NBA career as of now. However, both of these players are nearing retirement age, making winning more rings even more difficult. Through this argument, Parker reasoned how the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors still struggle for standings in the league despite having two of the greatest players in the league’s history on their teams.
Adding further to his disappointment with Jason Kidd for hyping Doncic, Parker added, “He lost me when he started to put him [Luka Doncic] in the same discussion as Jordan and Kobe.” Parker argued that the Slovenian is “light years away” from matching the defensive prowess of Dirk, Kobe Bryant, or Michael Jordan. To bring such a discourse up for debate, the Spurs legend suggests waiting till Doncic retires or brings home silverware for the Mavericks to spark another conversation about his skills and prowess.
Luka Doncic outpaces Dirk Nowitzki in terms of his stats with the Dallas Mavericks
While Dirk Nowitzki is undoubtedly a legend for the Mavericks, Luka Doncic has surpassed the German superstar to establish his own legacy for the franchise. Comparing both careers, Doncic had much better stats and figures in his first six seasons in the NBA than Nowitzki.
Doncic’s best stats with the Mavs averages 34.6 points (2024), 9.4 rebounds (2020), and 9.5 (2024) assists per game, two of which are from this season itself. However, compared to the Slovenian, Nowitzki’s best season in 2006 only amounted to 26.6 points (2006), 9.9 rebounds (2002), and 3.5 assists (2008) per game. The only stat wherein Dirk edges out Luka is in rebounds, given Nowitzki played as a power forward for the Mavs.
In his six seasons in the league, Doncic has already been named a 5x All-Star, 4x All-NBA First Team, and 4x All-NBA Team, and he has won the Rookie of the Year award as well. Though Dirk never won the ROTY, he has been named as a Season MVP, a Finals MVP, a 14x All-Star, and has been selected 12 times to the All-NBA Teams in his 21-year career.
Given Luka Doncic’s career trajectory, the Slovenian might soon dethrone Dirk as the greatest European to play with the Mavs. Doncic has already started breaking Nowitzki’s scoring records for the franchise. Soon as well, we might see Doncic leading the Mavs to the second championship in their history and winning Season and Finals MVP awards to perhaps prove Tony Parker’s comparison wrong.
