There’s a thought that keeps haunting me as I watch the NBA Finals this year.
What if former Dallas Maverick superstar Luka Doncic – currently Los Angeles Lakers – had the same guidance and preparation early on and before even entering the league that the San Antonio Spurs’ young superstar Victor Wembanyama did?
Would that have made his journey in the NBA easier and smoother, and perhaps helped him win a championship and an MVP award faster?
And could it have helped him gain the recognition many believe
he deserves – but isn’t getting – from the media and talking heads?
Wemby came into the league so prepared and so comfortable with who he was that it almost shocked fans and media. How could he not care that people snickered because he brought a book to read before the All-Star game?
How is he able to quote philosophers, and insist on showing his emotions – unlike most other players his age?
Why has he not spent his whole life dunking on opponents rather than educating himself to be prepared to take on both the mental and physical challenge of being the best?
To some, this may come off as arrogance. And maybe to some extent it is, because he truly believes he can be the best, and he is confident in that and in himself – because he puts in the work. That is not very different from some of the best players to play the game of basketball. It actually sounds very similar. He came into the league, knowing who he was, who he wanted to be, and he never steered off that path.
Imagine if someone like Luka Doncic had come into the league as prepared and well-guided as Victor Wembanyama. His first seven years in the NBA may have looked very differently.
This is no slight to Luka Doncic at all, who has been known to trust people around him, but unfortunately has learned down the line that people are not always as good at their job as you would assume.
When Wemby entered the league, he came almost fully formed in how to take care of his extraordinary physique, how to work on specific movements like flexibility and balance for injury prevention and efficiency. He arrived having been guided, it seems, for years on how to take care of himself and his body’s needs, and he never seems to veer off that.
Mentally and intellectually, he has also made surprising, but intentional choices from the beginning. Staying at a Shaolin Temple in China for ten days last summer, studying Chan meditation, Shaolin Kung Fu, traditional Chinese medicine and more.
And arranging for a fans section in San Antonio, which he taught chants from Europe. Intentionality in everything he does.
And as someone who has followed, analyzed and written about Luka Doncic for years – and even tried to bridge cultural gaps between Americans and Europeans so many times – I can’t help but wonder:
Where would Luka Doncic be if he was as prepared and well-guided, in as good of a situation and had a roster slowly and steadily built around him during his early years in the NBA?
Intentionality in everything you do seems to be a marker of success. Luka Doncic is one of the best basketball players in the world – if you know me, you know I’ve pushed for him to win MVP, especially in 2024 – and in my opinion, he is the best player in the world when he is healthy.
But if you compare everything around that to Wemby’s approach, it’s already clear who comes out on top, despite Wemby only being in the league for a few years.
Wembanyama clearly had better guidance coming into the league. He clearly learned to take care of himself early on at another level, too. He was clearly supported and lifted by being surrounded by people who he could trust, who have been able to make certain he ended up in the best situation possible.
Luka Doncic had none of that early on, it seems.
I know what you’re thinking right now. Doncic was drafted by an organization that didn’t put him in a similar development situation or roster construction effort as Wemby. And I agree with you. That is part of the point. On multiple levels Luka Doncic was not set up for success in the same way Wemby has been and still is.
And that is the point.
But despite lacking in all of this, Doncic still made it to where he is right now – and that’s pretty spectacular. Who knows if he still has a chance to win the MVP award and get a ring – he should and he deserves it – but he didn’t have much of the outside help that others did.
And because of this, Wembanyama may win MVP before Luka Doncic.
The absurdity of that sentence drives me nuts. When an acquaintance and fellow Danish journalist two years ago asked who would win it first, Luka or Wemby, I was perplexed. Luka was a superstar, among the best ever, Wemby was a rookie.
But the reality is that Wemby was in the top three nominees for MVP this year, and Luka was not. He is leading a team in the Finals right now, and Luka is not.
The absurdity of that situation after what Luka has done in Dallas with so little, and what he did to lead the Mavs to the Finals in 2024 haunts me. Many of us, I bet.
But the world is full of absurdity, just look around. Sometimes we just have to laugh, because what else can we do?
The fact remains, however. If Luka Doncic had had what Victor Wembanyama has, he would probably have reached the top already. Instead, he keeps fighting the same fight he has for five years in a cycle that just seems to repeat itself.
Intentionality. Maybe that’s the cure against absurdity. It may be worth a shot.
After Victor Wembanyama, the league will never be the same. The way he came into the league, almost fully ready and prepared to take care of his body and knowing exactly what he wanted, will set a precedent for future stars. And that’s a good thing for all of us.
