Luka Doncic welcomed all his bosses with the Dallas Mavericks to his home country of Slovenia to watch the young superstar sign the richest contract in club history.
Now that the record rookie supermax extension of $207 million is in the books, it’s back to the business of trying to win for a franchise that hasn’t advanced in the playoffs since winning its only championship 10 years ago. “I’m proud of Luka,” owner Mark Cuban said Tuesday as he sat next to his point guard during a news conference in Doncic’s hometown, the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana.
“I’ve seen when he first came in, the pressure that was on him and the way he dealt with it, how hard he worked,” Cuban said. “How he recognized that it was always about the team winning and that was what was most important to him. That was always most important to me, whatever we could do to win.”
The Mavericks have the most important piece of their next title pursuit under contract through 2026-27, although that final season in a five-year deal that starts in 2022-23 is a player option.
Doncic was eligible for the massive payday because he made the All-NBA first team twice, in his second and third seasons. At 22, he is the youngest in league history with multiple first-team selections.
“I still kind of don’t know what to say because I never imagined this happening,” Doncic said. “I was only dreaming of only playing in the NBA.”
