How A Child Prodigy Became An NBA Legend

before he turned 19 he won everything but somehow he wasn't the first pick in the NBA draft six years and many records later Luca donic is one of the most talented basketball players ever my basketball Journey has been a lot of fun I've always had a ball in my hand in this video we'll analyze the amazing talent of Luca magic and tell the unlikely story of how a kid from Slovenia became one of the biggest stars in the NBA Luca is now Luca is for real now Luca's father Sasha donic was a Prof profal basketball

player in Slovenia so Luca grew up around the game he wasn't even old enough to talk when he first saw his father play Live Well my father play so I was always in contact with basketball uh you know every time he had a game in the halftime or before the game I was going to shoot even I couldn't hit the rim cuz I was like 3 years old and at the age of five Luca was already regularly playing basketball by the age of eight he went to his first real basketball practice which lasted precisely 16

minutes that was all it took for his coach to realize that Luca was mild ahead of everybody in his age group so he moved him up to play with the 12-year-olds however even that wasn't a real challenge for donic after a few practices the coaches gathered to talk about the young Phenom and decided to move Luca from the basketball school to Olympia's club team intended for the most serious athletes since I was seven I always watch basketball play basketball so it was just something from the first moment for the first few years Luca wasn't that

dominant and often played a complimentary role never leading a team in scoring because he was 3 years younger than everybody and his feet had grown head of his body he was sometimes clumsy and couldn't always do what he wanted on the court but ultimately this helped him develop his basketball IQ and his fighting Spirit even though the age Gap affected how his teammates related to him off the court treating him like a younger brother Luca refused to be treated that way on the court and never allowed anybody to bully him the first time Luca played

with kids his age was when he was 13 during an international under 13 tournament in Rome Luca was 5'1 at the time and his basketball skills and IQ were far ahead of any 13 yold in the world he ran circles around Defenders made no look passes and sank silky smooth jumpers in the final game of the tournament donich scored a 54-point triple double leading his team to a 10476 Victory and was awarded in the tournament MVP averaging 34 points per game Luca was so dominant that every youth Scout in Europe was amazed and suddenly the

secret was out he became the most sought after 13-year-old athlete in Europe not just in basketball 6 months later he left his parents and moved to Real Madrid which was a very risky move at the time I had to leave all my family all my friends the school I was there everything you know so he was mature as a child also but if you go away from home with 13 years old you become very mature so this helped him to develop team basketball it was really tough I didn't know nobody actually I I almost didn't

speak English either like I just know how to say hello how are you and that stuff nobody spoke my language I didn't speak Spanish so it was really tough and that's how I learned Spanish so quick in 3 months I was like just doing nothing just be there listen be quiet Luca didn't know Spanish he was far removed from his parents at a very young age and maybe even more importantly Real Madrid wasn't invested so much in basketball as they were very much a football club first and foremost and the basketball team hadn't won a

single trophy in 5 years going to Madrid or Barcelona as a young player no matter how talented they are more often than not isn't a winning combination and the number of young players who go there and never play for the first team is huge but Luca wasn't going to back down from a challenge he again started playing with older kids dominating youth tournaments and winning MVPs he quickly learned the language and acclimated to Spanish culture and after just 2 years at the age of 15 he started practicing with the senior team at 16 he made

his debut for Madrid becoming the youngest player ever to play for real and the third youngest debutant in league history for the 20156 season donic became a regular member of Real Madrid's Senior Team and when he made his Euro league debut he became only the 21st player ever to play in the Euro league before turning 17 and he was 17 and he would make some passes that I don't even know how he he was doing that and his IQ was so good at 17 and then in the 2016 17 season Luca exploded in December of

2016 before he even turned 18 donic became a player of the week in the Spanish league and 4 days later against zalgiris he was named MVP in the round of the Euro league becoming the youngest player ever to do so but it's not only the accomplishment that was impressive it's how Luca did it he took two clutch shots in the last minute of the game like a cold blooded vet making both to win the game Don another three oh my God LCA also wasn't just some Reserve that got hot he was actually a starter and

the best player on the floor in the strongest competition in Europe no 17-year-old should be able to take over a game like that wave off is teammates in the clutch and take those shots with no fear but Luca was bred all his life for those moments always playing against more experienced competition by the end of the season he was named Euroleague MVP of the round three more times was awarded the Euroleague Rising Star by a unanimous vote and claimed the Spanish league best young player award after the season Luca joined the Slovenian national team to

compete in the 2017 Euro basket there he formed a backcourt with Goran drish a guy that used to play with his dad when luuka was just a six-year-old ball boy he was like two he would come and watch you know he would be at practices when he was older like 8 seven he would he would be a ball boy or come watch the game so fast forward 11 years and they formed the best backourt in Europe where drish drove the opposing guards crazy with his speed while Luca dissected defenses with surgical passing and while drish

was clearly the best player on the team Slovenia actually looked more stable when donic organized the offense making per perfect decisions on almost every possession in slovenia's 10397 win over lvia in the quarterfinals Luca scored 27 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the semi-finals against Spain he recorded 11 points 12 rebounds and eight assists with zero turnovers and Slovenia won again in the final against Serbia Luca had eight points and seven rebounds he takes it all the way how about that from L before exiting the game in the third quarter due to an injury but

drish was an unsolvable Miss for everybody and with his 35 points Slovenia won goal drish was named the tournament MVP and Luca made the all tournament team averaging 14 points eight rebounds and four assists he's a born winner so you know no I'm not kidding mark my War he he going to be one of the best in the whole world when the 2018 Club season started there wasn't a question of who was the best player and leader at Real Madrid Luca grabbed the keys to the offense and started orchestrating his teammates often waving his handed

vets when they started to screen without being invited this kind of Moxy and complete understanding of basketball was something never seen before at least not by an 18-year-old however Luca backed it all up with his game he dominated both in the Spanish league and the Euro league winning multiple player of the round and player of the month Awards again becoming the youngest player to do it I don't have any awards right now it's amazing feeling very special for me and I'm so glad to have these teammates to have these coaches to have everybody in my

team man I'm really happy he recorded the first triple double in the Spanish league since 2007 and only the seventh in league history if you think that's strange compared to the NBA bear in mind that European players rarely average over 25 minutes per game throughout the season Luca hit multiple gamewinners and clutch shots and it seemed like he could do no wrong step back three-pointer for the game you eat that donin led Real Madrid to the Euroleague title becoming the youngest player ever to win MVP of the final four and the youngest ever to win

regular season MVP after that he did the same thing in the Spanish league leading raal to the title and winning the season MVP it's amazing you know it was really hard to get here the whole season I always say I think this was one of the best seasons in Euro league anything could beat you so I'm very very happy to be here and play this Final in just 3 years of being a pro donic became the LeBron of European basketball a guy who doesn't need any actions called for and can run the entire offense by

himself he wants to catch lovely scale oh have some of that with an almost perfect overview of the game Luca was equally good at finding passing lanes for his teammates or creating space for his own shot he wasn't fast but he always got where he wanted to go on the court he wasn't athletic yet he could always get Defenders off balance and his shot wasn't perfect but he always seemed to hit big shots when it mattered the most a reason for Luca's dominance is how he trained his body he had been visiting the P3 Institute

in Santa Barbara since he was 16 I went twice to to Santa Barbara to work at P3 okay yeah that makes sense okay great place P3 was developed with a scientific approach where the athlete is monitored through sophisticated cameras and sensors that scan every athletes movement from all angles and then through a computer software analyzes their strengths and weaknesses the athletes are given detailed training plans to correct their deficiencies observed in performance with a focus on Mobility Speed and Agility when donic first got there they worked on his mobility and explosiveness and according to their

data Luca became Elite in one specific parameter deceleration Luca donic is not a vertical or linear athlete but he's got the best breaks in the world most NBA players are fantastic when it comes to acceleration from 1 to 100 they go like a Ferrari unlike them Luca goes from 100 to zero in the blink of an eye which is very important when attacking with the ball in his hands yeah I think it just playing in my own pains you know I think a lot of guys appreciate that uh it's been different you know than some

guys know really athletic I wish I was but play on my pace is what gives me uh some moment to think and despite Luca breaking nearly every record in the second best league in the world winning all the titles hitting big shots and leading grown men at the age of 18 many NBA GMS believed he wasn't better than some college basketball players they believed Luca's Game Wouldn't translate and that he was too slow for the NBA and that's how donic fell away to the third pick in the draft to the Atlanta Hawks who would subsequently

trade him to the Mavericks for Trey young but even the Mavericks who wanted to draft Luca all along believed in his talent and they had been tracking him since he was 13 they didn't even fully grasp his greatness so much so that Luca didn't even start at point guard in his rookie season instead he shared ball duties with Dennis Smith Jr the previous year's Lottery Pick and all rookie selection Luca made his first start at point guard six weeks into the season when Smith missed a game due to injury and recorded 15 points and eight

assists in a home win over the Celtics lost it Luka got it back L looking donic then averaged 20 points seven rebounds and seven assists during an 11 game stretch in December after which the Mavs realized they had by far the best player in the draft in January Luca became the youngest player ever to record a triple double and the first teenager in NBA history with a 30-point triple double and multiple triple doubles donic was just the fifth player in NBA history to average at least 20 points five rebounds and five assists in his rookie

year first of all I was like to make the playoffs but this personally I think every rookie wants to win the Rookie of the Year and he was just two votes shy of being the sixth player ever to win Rookie of the Year unanimously he's passed that next up after his first season like you knew Lucas going to be that guy and he's that guy now early in his sophomore season he became the fastest player to reach 2,000 points in the NBA five games faster than LeBron James 10 games faster than Durant and Carmelo and

75 games games faster than Kobe Bryant once he got acclimated to the NBA Luca became not only the most important piece in the Maverick system he was the system a guy who pulled all the strings and made everything go donic averaged 299 and9 for the season and made the first team all NBA becoming just the second player behind Tim Duncan with that honor in his first two seasons but when the playoffs started Luca took it up a notch in his first playoff game against the Clippers he scored 42 points which was the most ever in

an end ba playoff debut in game four of the series Luca became the youngest player in NBA postseason history with a 40-point triple double scoring 43 points 17 rebounds and 13 assists including this dagger for the win back to donic donic pulls up three pointer bang bang it's good donic wins the game at the Buzzard however the Clippers still proved too strong for Dallas winning the series in six games despite Luca averaging 31 points 10 rebounds and nine assists in his third year Luca continued to break records again making first all NBA team and finishing

sixth in the MVP voting Dallas again matched up with the Clippers in the first round and donic was even better this time averaging 35 8 and 10 but the Mavericks lost again this time in seven games and just like with all great players doubters started to arise how come Luca is so great but can't win in the playoffs but the only difference between Luca and Michael Jordan for example is that Luca got that criticism ISM earlier than anybody since he was still only 21 years old and when the 2122 season started Luca came back with

a vengeance in two back-to-back games against the Clippers his favorite customer donic scored 96 points including a career-high 51 during February Luca became the first player in NBA history to average 30 points 10 rebounds and eight assists per game while shooting at least 40% from three-point range in a calendar month and he once again made the all-nba first team but even more importantly the Mavs finally started winning in the playoffs they got past the Jazz in the first round which secured them a tough matchup against the defending Western Conference Champion Phoenix Suns it was a

tough evenly Matched series with the home team winning each of the first six games game seven was played in Phoenix and the world expected the Suns to advance instead we saw a complete Abomination and a total blowout 27-point lead down goes Johnson three oh no they ring them at one point the Mavs had a 46-point lead and donic sunned Devin Booker who openly mocked him in the previous game however in the Conference finals against the Warriors despite Luca averaging 32 points per game the Mavs were overmatched and they lost the Series in five in the

2023 season Lucas set a career-high in points 60 and rebounds 21 becoming the first player in NBA history to record a 60p 20 rebound triple double in a 126 121 victory over the New York Knicks got the rebound in a one motion put it up I mean you can practice that 100 times it it won't happen it won't happen right incredible and the only player other than James Harden to record a 60-point triple double and despite setting several other records and another First Team all NBA the Mavericks missed the playoffs all together even after they

added Kyrie Irving everybody wants to win the championship I want to win the championship here so it's it's our goal you know every season is the same goal uh but it's a lot of work to do this brings us to 2024 in a year where Luca made another step forward and further improved his game he improved his averages to an unreal 33.9 points 9.8 rebounds and 9.2 assists per game winning his first scoring title in a January game against Atlanta Luca torched the Hawks for 73 points the fourth highest scoring game ever and the first

70-point game while shooting 75% or better from the field just insane I was just going you know whatever the defense give me in the second half they double me all the time so I tried to make some plays sometime I would just break the double so just seeing the game for the entire season Luca disintegrated every defense like rust disintegrates iron on an abandoned ship slowly and relentlessly his footwork has become so masterful that almost every step has its own meaning one is Tiny the second a bit bigger the third lows you to sleep and

with the fourth he's gone jab jab jab right hook KO his understanding of space and basketball geometry combined with his perfect handle amazing footwork and big body that constantly leans on opponents and pushes them out of balance it's like basketball art the full speed to the D cell how much are you practicing that when did you develop that I didn't practice that I I just call it the slow step you know but I never really practiced that one this will not be Don's last scoring title and he'll continue to break records like he's done all

his career Luca is only 25 but even if he retired right now he's already one of the greatest to ever do it thanks for watching Non-Stop and if you like this one check out this video