Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd raised more than a few eyebrows on Tuesday when he compared his star forward Luka Doncic to the NBA’s all-time greats.
Doncic has been on a tear lately, scoring 73 points against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday. In a three-game stretch, he averaged 48.7 points and 13.0 assists per game and followed his 73 points against the Hawks with 28 points, 10 rebounds and 17 assists against the Sacramento Kings.
In an appearance on Dallas radio program The Downbeat, Kidd said Tuesday that Doncic had already overtaken another European star, Dirk Nowitzki, a 14-time All-Star who led the Mavericks to the 2011 NBA title.
“He’s better than Dirk,” said Kidd, who played alongside Nowitzki in the Mavs’ title-winning season. “He’s in the realm of (Michael Jordan), the best to ever do it, LeBron (James), Kobe (Bryant). And so, just to appreciate what this young man is doing at 24 years old is something that Dallas has never seen. I said this internally: he is better than Dirk. He does things that Dirk could never do, and now is the opportunity to get the right people around him to ultimately win a championship.”
Doncic is averaging 32.5 points per game in the playoffs, second only to Jordan. But the 24-year-old has only guided his team past the first round of the play-offs once, when they reached the Western Conference finals in 2022. Kidd doesn’t see that as a problem.
“This young man is 24 and breaking all the records in front of him,” Kidd said. “He is a winner and his ultimate goal is to win a championship. And he’ll get there and not just win one, but he’ll win several when it’s all said and done.
As for Doncic himself, he seems interested in more mundane matters.
“I’m tired,” Doncic said after Saturday’s win over the Kings. “I can’t wait to go to sleep, honestly.”