Current Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic made headlines early in his career when he said it is easier to score in the NBA than it was in Europe.
So far though, Doncic has proven that be true as in seven seasons, he has been named to five All-Star teams and collected five First Team All-NBA nominations while averaging 28.6 points.
Doncic’s career is off to a historic start from a scoring perspective, and he explained why he has had so much success and feels it’s easier to score in the NBA on the latest episode of the “Mind the Game” podcast with LeBron James and Steve Nash:
“Especially when I was I would say about 15 and I had a coach that was hard on me. But hard on everybody, from 1-12, he did the same thing to everybody. It wasn’t like it was just one person. So that’s really when I started to play. When I was 15, I started my first practices with the first team and I was scared. I was nervous. But at some point you get used to it. I competed when I was 16, I was shaking. I still remember the moment. But I think in Europe, watching the Euro League now and before, it’s more about the team and teamwork. But it’s different rules in the NBA, I’ve always said that. The reason I said it’s easier to score in the NBA is because it’s just different rules. You have a lot more spacing, you have more minutes. It’s eight more minutes, anything can happen in eight minutes. So it’s just because of that. In Europe if you get a big guy, for example like Edy Tavares, he plays in Madrid. He’s just standing in the paint and he can stand in the paint and he’s [7’3″], it’s hard to score on that. It’s impossible. Here, you can’t do that because it’s a three-second violation.”
There’s no arguing with Doncic that NBA rules make it easier to score. He pointed out the most egregious example of that as in Europe, there is no defensive three-second calls so centers can just camp out in the paint.
NBA rules involve some give-and-take though as playing defense is as hard as ever, which is an area Doncic and the Lakers will need to improve on if they want to get back into championship contention.
LeBron James on what makes Luka Doncic so special
LeBron James has been a fan of Luka Doncic since he entered the league and he recently discussed what makes his Lakers co-star so special.
“It’s always his pace. It’s always been his pace. It’s never been a game where it’s like ‘you can speed me up, he can speed me up, this bigger guy can be more physical, this smaller guy can get underneath me.’ It’s like, he moves at his own pace. And he’s never ever been on the floor, where he’s allowed someone to dictate where they’re going to put him on the floor. It’s always been the opposite. And for us, we all working off of that, we’ve just got to stay ready. We’ve seen throughout his career, there’s plays and passes that only certain guys in league history have ever been able to make. And for us, we just have to make sure that we continue to stay ready, especially when you’re going against handsy teams, athletic teams and teams that try to speed you up. We always have to keep our head on a swivel, because you just never know when the ball may find you. And that’s a good thing, that’s keeping the defense off balance and it’s a great thing to have that.”
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