Luka Doncic might not be among the top 2 picks for the EuroBasket 2025 by ESPN, but he is the talk of the town. Serbia’s star Bogdan Bogdanovic, who ruled the 2017 Tournament, had to say this about Luka Doncic: “He can kill anyone in a tournament. He can go for 50, 60 …. That’s what makes him special.” Just like many others, the veteran considers the Lakers superstar as one of, if not the best, offensive players participating in the EuroBasket 2025. While that’s great for the 26-year-old individually, it still doesn’t make his native Slovenia one of the top contenders to win the tournament. And the reason isn’t sweet.
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The most important reason is that Luka Doncic lacks support from his teammates. While superstars like Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo are surrounded by solid players on their respective national teams, Doncic’s case is different. That’s because, despite having the five-time All-NBA guard, there’s a lot of drama around the Slovenia national team. If that wasn’t evident before, it became clear after veteran guard Zoran Dragic’s surprising exit from the team.
This has made Eurohoops journalist Aris Barkas compare Luka’s situation to NBA icon and former Dallas Mavericks legend, Dirk Nowitzki. “Doncic might be enough for Slovenia to make it to the quarterfinals, but nobody can imagine them achieving anything more. And that was pretty much the fate of Dirk Nowitzki with the German national team. With the exception of a bronze medal in the 2002 FIBA World Cup and a silver medal in Eurobasket 2005, despite having prime Dirk, Germany was just a respectable team with no real chances as a contender.” Barkas wrote.
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It seems like both the European superstars have much more in common than sharing the floor for the Mavs. Barkas stated that the Lakers’ point guard should be scoring 50 per night just to give Slovenia a decent chance to win, similar to what Dirk had to do in his prime while representing Germany.
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August 17, 2022, Ljubjlana, Slovenia: Luka Doncic 77 of Slovenia reacts during the International Friendly, Länderspiel, Nationalmannschaft basketball between Slovenia and Serbia at Arena Stozice. Copyright: xMilosxVujinovicx
The journalist pointed out that having a generational talent like Luka or Dirk isn’t enough — they can only do so much alone in big tournaments. But Germany did turn around after scouting the current generation of players, such as Dennis Schroder and Franz Wagner, who took over (winning the FIBA World Cup and silver medal at the EuroBasket 2022).
That’s something Luka Doncic lacks at the moment, and facing a similar situation to that of Dirk. Now, it will be up to the Lakers’ point guard as to how he navigates through this situation. But things are not looking good for him, as more locker room drama emerges.
Zoran Dragic’s wife claims he left the national team over “circus” atmosphere
Ahead of the flurry of preparation games for the EuroBasket 2025, Slovenia veteran Goran Dragic announced that this would be his last tournament with the national team. However, things took a weird turn when the 36-year-old departed midway through the camp — bringing an unexpected end to his illustrious Slovenia career. Of course, this raised several eyebrows over the team’s chemistry and left fans curious as to why he took such a drastic step.
While the Slovenian Basketball Federation announced that Dragic was cut from the roster by head coach Aleksander Sekulic, that’s not the case, according to the hooper’s wife. Dragic’s better half, Svetlana Dragic, posted a social media message suggesting that his husband has walked away and not been cut. “The ‘so-called coach’ didn’t cross Zoran off the list. Zoran left this circus that has been going on for a couple of years,” She wrote. In fact, she even added a clown emoji to put more emphasis on the circus part.
She further went on a serious rant explaining all the factors that led to Zoran Dragic making this decision. However, the veteran star wasn’t the only player to suffer this fate, as Ziga Daneu also was cut from the 16-man selection. While it’s still not clear as to what led the head coach to make such a decision, there are reports that suggest that he did not think they were fit and couldn’t play based on past merits. Now, only time will tell whether this was a wise decision or not, as everyone awaits the EuroBasket 2025.
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Md Saba Ahmed