Mavericks’ Luka Dončić finds himself on the edge of a precipice of greatness that always seemed inevitable

MINNEAPOLIS — As Luka Dončić sat in the small postgame press conference room, the smallest he will be in for the rest of his season, he placed a trophy on the table in front of him . It was awarded to him after he was voted MVP in the Western Conference Finals, with the award starting with some sort of shiny gold dais that supported the silver orb at the top. He wasn’t sure, he admitted, how it would fit in his trophy case.

“(He will) come home,” Dončić said, the only destination he was sure of at that moment. “I don’t know where yet.”

Dončić’s brilliant accolades are too numerous to list. He has a trophy from Real Madrid’s 2018 EuroLeague championship, but none from Slovenia’s first-ever EuroBasket victory in 2017. There are countless plaques and medallions, too numerous to remember, from past tournaments and finals in which he played a long time ago. What he had on his mind, aside from a post-match beer, was not his new metallic piece, but the quest for an even more golden piece.

In Thursday’s 124-103 Game 5 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, Dončić advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time. With him came his new teammates, the best he’d ever had, amplifying their transcendent superstardom that seemed destined to reach this stage.

Now he has done it.

Luka Dončić flashes a smile during his press conference after the Mavericks won the Western Conference Finals. (Bruce Kluckhohn / USA Today)

It’s been 13 years since the Dallas Mavericks reached the NBA Finals. Thirteen years after lifting the crown under Dirk Nowitzki for the first time in franchise history. Thirteen years spent toiling in Nowitzki’s twilight years, then learning to trust Dončić after his arrival. This is Nowitzki’s franchise, it always will be, but there is no better successor. Not because these two legends are identical – not even close – but because they share a common trait: a ruthless desire for victory that elevates everything around them. What Nowitzki left, Doncčić took back. Now he’s arrived at the same place Nowitzki took them: to the Finals, against the Boston Celtics, starting June 6.

Dončić didn’t watch the NBA Finals growing up. “It was 4 a.m.,” he said. ” I could not. I had school the next day.

But from the first minutes of the fifth game, he left no doubt about his ability to reach his first goal. He had 10 points in the first three minutes, 15 in the first eight and 20 by the end of the quarter, with the Timberwolves scoring only 19 themselves.

“I turn around and he’s shooting from the middle of the field,” starting center Daniel Gafford said. “I’m like, ‘At this point, I don’t even need to put up a screen for you, bro.’”

It was a display of finality that Dončić has shown many times before, most notably against the Phoenix Suns in the closing Game 7 two seasons ago.

“This one was very close to that,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “He got the crowd out of the game from the start and he let his teammates know it was time.”

Dončić’s 36 points on 14-of-22 shooting were matched by his co-star running mate, Kyrie Irving, who had 36 himself. Irving is the only player on the team to have previously appeared in the Finals. Irving is the best player Dončić has ever played with, the one who matched him shot for shot in Thursday’s final victory. He ensured that Dončić’s snarling, howling eminence was tied to his own firm and sure resolve. With these two at the top of the team, in matches where they both decide that losing is not an option, there is certainty in the results.

The teammates around them – the ones Dončić first met 12, 10 or even three months ago – quickly earned Dončić’s full trust on the pitch.

When Dončić is unstoppable, his teammates turn into an escalation of his brilliance. Play it straight and Dončić overcomes all the high-flying athleticism he lacks for the heavenly lobbed passes that Gafford sends down the mortal coil of the rim. Double him, and there’s rookie phenom Dereck Lively II who catches the ball at the free-throw line and tosses it to an open teammate — usually PJ Washington or Derrick Jones Jr., two defensive stalwarts who quickly learned that hesitation is a problem. unnecessary feeling when these deliveries are imbued with the trust Dončić places in them.

Sometimes Josh Green attempts passes so daring that you wonder if Doncić could handle him when they succeed. At other times, old friends like Maxi Kleber emerge with veteran know-how to remind us that Dončić is still a young man of only 25, still not yet in his prime, even if he sees his teammates age in and out of theirs. Even 21-year-old sophomore guard Jaden Hardy, revived over the past two weeks, struts with a swagger that must at least partly come from Dončić.

Dončić is still in charge, at the head of this team. His hagiography is earned through nights like this, where there’s no way to look at him and think anything except that he’s the best basketball player in the world. It will be determined if he and his teammates are enough, at this point, to topple the Boston Celtics. The battle will take place over seven games, or six, or as many as it takes.

“We’re not done here,” Doncic said. “We need four more.”

Dončić’s trophy box, the one he will place his newly awarded slab in wherever it will fit, could use a centerpiece. What Dončić would like to see there is the biggest trophy the sport has to offer. He always wanted it from the first moment he entered this league laden with laurels that he intended to surpass.

Now begins his first chance.

Required reading

(Top photo of Luka Doncic and his father, Sasa: ​​David Berding/Getty Images)