MINNEAPOLIS — When Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd agreed to discuss Luka Dončić and all of his greatness late Friday night, to share the unique perspective that comes with being an all-time great himself, he posted up in the hallway of the Target Center just as his franchise centerpiece player was starting his press conference in the chapel room nearby.
The Minnesota Timberwolves didn’t have a prayer on that last play, not with Rudy Gobert left alone on an island up top and Dončić’s eyes the size of saucers when Jaden McDaniels gave Dončić the switch that, as he would say while sitting at his locker minutes later, he didn’t expect to see.
“I was surprised they switched,” Dončić told The Athletic.
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The stepback 3 was as predictable as Dončić’s celebration after it went in with three seconds left, when he talked his talk at everyone from Gobert to the fans who surely thought they were safe when the Timberwolves had led by as many as 18 points in the first half.
These Mavs had stolen Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, 109-108, leaving town with a 2-0 series lead that puts them in prime position to earn the franchise’s first Finals appearance since Kidd was the one running the show for that legendary title team back in 2011. And as Kidd kept trying to explain why the 25-year-old Slovenian is just so different, effusing praise for so long that Dončić was now leaving his media duties behind and crossing paths with Kidd again en route to the visitor’s locker room, the coach and player shared a laugh about the fact that this impromptu interview about him was still going.
“I can’t say enough,” Kidd said with a smile.
To hear Kidd put Dončić’s game into its proper historical context is to understand why the storylines entering this series are proving to be so off-base. Young Anthony Edwards is a spectacular talent, to be sure, and someone who has shown so much promise in this Timberwolves run that he’s undeniably one of the future faces of the league. But there was an element of newness that surely played a part in the 22-year-old capturing so much of the national spotlight, with the nonstop comparisons to Michael Jordan making that conversation so fascinating along the way.
The game has a way of sorting these things out, though, and that fateful final minute was an undeniable display of Dončić — for now, at least — being the superior player among these two young stars. It was Edwards who threw the off-target pass to Jaden McDaniels that resulted in a turnover with 47 seconds left. It was Edwards who threw another wayward pass to the fans in the front with 13 seconds left, when he missed a cutting Naz Reid and opened the door for Dončić’s game-winner.
It was Edwards who chose not to take the last shot just before the buzzer, when he threw that grenade to Reid deep on the right wing for the three that didn’t fall. It was Edwards, after shooting just 5 of 17 from the field, who has now missed 40 of 57 shots in his last three games (29.8 percent). It was Dončić, meanwhile, who finished with 32 points, 13 assists, and 10 rebounds while taking control of that final Mavs possession in the kind of courageous way that segued to cocky.
So I asked Kidd afterward, was this perhaps proof that Dončić was being overlooked heading into this matchup of the two team’s stars?
“I don’t wanna say overlooked,” Kidd, who crossed over with Jordan for six seasons in his early playing years, told The Athletic. “Ant’s good. Ant’s future is extremely bright. But when you look at Luka’s body of work, the only complaint everybody talks about is his fussing and his conversations with the referees. I mean, all the great ones talked to the referees. Some did it better. Some do it where everybody can see it.
“But when you look at his game, I don’t know what you can nitpick about. He can post up. He can pass. He has this fire that I think sometimes can be taken out of context. It’s just understanding that he wants to win. He’s not scared of nobody, and sometimes that can scare people.”
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Make no mistake, the Timberwolves should be terrified. The verbal victory lap he unleashed on Gobert after his shot fell through was a window into Dončić’s fiery side, with the cameras clearly catching him telling the Timberwolves big man that he had zero chance of stopping him.
Here’s the TNT Overtime angle with everything Luka said, including a “let’s go mother f**ker. you cant fucking guard me.” pic.twitter.com/ccfzvfirst
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) May 25, 2024
Dončić tried to pretend he hadn’t said it, smiling when asked about the exchange and telling reporters, “I didn’t say that; I was speaking Slovenian.” But he hadn’t even stopped there, as he shouted at the crowd for good measure once Gobert — who deserved the help of a double team but never got it — had been put in his place. Kidd, who is in his third season working with Dončić after replacing Rick Carlisle in the summer of 2021, had seen this movie plenty of times before.
“He’s very observant,” he told The Athletic about Dončić. “He has those Dumbo ears. He hears everything. He hears the guy in the front row, and the 20th row. He will find that person, and that will motivate him. I’ve seen that with GP (Gary Payton). GP will find that fan to fire him up, and then once he’s fired up, it’s on. And then the coaches just sit back, because now the fan has done their part.”
As player comps go, Kidd has always put Dončić up there with LeBron James. He’s qualified to make that sort of bold claim, not only because of his status as one of the league’s NBA 75 honorees but because he played against James and won a title while coaching him during his two years as a Lakers assistant (2019-21). It’s worth noting, too, that James didn’t win his first of four titles until he was 27 years old.
“The IQ is extremely high,” Kidd continued. “He can take and make any shot. He can pass like no other. LeBron might be a little bit better defensively, and understand passing lanes (better). But when you talk about the stage — Ky (Irving), Luka, Dirk (Nowitzki) — the great ones aren’t scared. If you miss that shot, he’ll be like, ‘Look, my bad. You guys got me where we needed to go, and I needed to deliver.’ It’s pretty cool to watch.
It’s that fearlessness that is proving to be the difference maker so far in this series. Every team needs an alpha to lead the way, and it’s Dončić who has done it in both games when it mattered most.
He scored 15 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter of Dallas’ Game 1 win, when Irving kept the Mavs afloat in the first half and readily yielded down the second-half stretch. He did it again in Game 2, when the Mavs could have easily decided to let up and settle for the two-game split as they headed home for Games 3 and 4. Dončić, whose Mavericks missed the postseason a year ago after falling to Golden State in the West Finals in 2022, is clearly determined to make the most of every game with this special group.
The moves to land P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford at the February trade deadline sparked an identity shift in Dallas, where they boasted the league’s best defense in the final 20 games. The ripple effect for Dončić, it seems, is that all this complementary talent has inspired him to be at his best even more than before.
“I think he truly believes with this group,” Kidd told The Athletic. “He has a group that can play. And I’m not taking shots at any of the past teammates, but he had Dirk when Dirk was my age.”
Nowitzki was 40 years old when he was Dončić’s teammate during his rookie season. And while Kidd is 51, his point remains true.
“This is a group where you have other assets that can play, and who can help him,” he added.
To Kidd’s credit, he clearly understands what makes Dončić tick. You see the lighter moments between them on a regular basis, and the shared respect that comes with both of them having elite résumés. But Kidd still finds himself looking for new ways to connect with his young protege, including one such moment that took place before Game 2.
“You want to get Luka to talk, you talk Real Madrid,” he said of Dončić, who signed a five-year contract with the Spanish club’s basketball team as a 13-year-old in 2012 and played with them from 2015 to 2018. “If you want to piss him off, you talk about Barcelona. If you know about the rivalry with Real Madrid and Barcelona, you know how to poke the bear a little bit.
“So today, I’m joking with him, and I go, ‘Man, I think I’m gonna take the Barcelona job. Did you see how they sacked the manager (on Friday)?’”
Dončić knows better than to believe that nonsense, of course. With a player like this at the helm, and with all the momentum earned from two impressive wins in these West Finals, there’s no other job he’d rather have.
(Photo of Luka Dončić: David Berding/Getty Images)