The air is pretty thin up in the stratosphere where Luka Doncic just joined Michael Jordan. The Dallas Mavericks star who the NBA community was trying to pull down a notch for those MJ comparisons, just made NBA history as the only player with six straight 30-point triple-doubles. More than that, he accomplished the feat while leading Dallas to a blowout 142-124 win over Detroit. The Jordan Brand, which signed Doncic for a cool $75 million in 2019, just validated what a phenomenon Doncic is on the Jumpman23 Instagram page.
The brief congratulatory message had a quiet confident vibe to it. “Unbelievable. Except to you,” the Jumpman23 Stories said. Doncic finished the game with an eye-popping 39-10-10. As the buzzer sounded, he had beat Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson’s records. He was also the first player to register a fifth straight 35-point triple-double.
Doncic’s relationship with the Jordan Brand is going to stay intact for the near future. He signed a multi-year contract extension in 2023 keeping him in the Jordan family till 2029. Which means the Jumpman is going to partake in every Doncic phenomenon whether others like it or not.
No exception to MJ-levels of greatness
Doncic had a strong start to 2024 with a 73-point game that made him the fourth-highest single-game scorer between two Wilt Chamberlain records. Jason Kidd, the Mavs coach, claimed that the tear his powerhouse is on earns him the right to be include in the same conversation as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
The NBA community did not take too kindly to it. While the Jumpman page was silent on it, Shaquille O’Neal fueled it by sharing the comments without any context though he said that it’s too early to discuss Luka in that conversation. His TNT colleague, Jamal Crawford was furious about the comparison. A two-time coach of the year, Hubie Brown, listed all the things that “separates” Doncic from the greats. Spurs star, Tony Parker admitted that Doncic is “unbelievable,” but argued that the NBA rules differed for Doncic and NBA veterans.
The attention he got a month ago puts the Jumpman’s comment today into perspective. Regardless, Doncic takes the commentary provoked by his coach in his stride and keeps his on-court performance consistent. What’s next for Doncic?
