“Just how nice it is,” he says about what would be the biggest surprise for a tourist visiting Ljubljana. The fire that Doncic plays with has been boiling in his veins, passed down from the blaze of the dragons that dot his city. Wings and fangs are everywhere throughout the capital. The bridge lies underneath the grand hill where the city’s ancient castle, which held an exhibition in 2018 called “The Dragon of All Dragons,” was built long ago. “And you have restaurants all over the river.” “Really nice,” Doncic says about the Dragon Bridge. The city’s Dragon Bridge, home to four copper dragon statues, has become famous across the globe. Now Ljubljana holds a Dragon Carnival every winter, and there is a dragon on the city’s coat of arms, as well as its flag, its river walls, its manhole covers, and even on the logo of NK Olimpija Ljubljana, the local football team. The mythic beast was a part of Doncic’s upbringing. Time and oral traditions have changed the dragon’s role from monster to hero in Slovenian mythology. Old stories say that the great Greek hero Jason slayed the dragon that lived in the waters of the Ljubljanica River before the city was founded. Ljubljana, Slovenia, Luka’s hometown and Slovenia’s capital, is the City of Dragons. He and Jordan Brand scooped Luka up and have set him down the path of being a signature athlete. Michael Jordan noticed the world’s player. A particularly important set of eyes started watching him at some point along the way. The NBA résumé is getting bolstered in the same way his EuroLeague accomplishments caught attention from shining sea to shining sea. Opposing coaches are losing sleep over him. His fan base continues to stretch, both geographically and age-wise. More and more of his peers talk about how unstoppable he is. KICKS 25 featuring Luka Doncic is out now.Īll roads have started to lead to Luka these days. Whether the spectators are French, Slovenian, American or from somewhere else, the many perceived differences of their lives are simplified by the connection shared through a language they can all see-brilliance on the basketball court, translated for all the planet by Luka Doncic. The packs of Luka fans both here in Paris and around the globe have come to hold on to those fleeting moments where magic is proving to be real. Two seconds of his reactive decision-making with the ball have started to last much longer than just two seconds.
We’ve all come to expect that expectations carry no weight with him. Some of the very few lucky ones learned about him by seeing him on the streets and at the courts of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Others learned about him by watching Real Madrid. Some of them have learned about Doncic by watching the Dallas Mavericks. The blistering July sun doesn’t slow down the adoring masses. Very few structures obscure the sky’s grandeur. The Parisian architecture was built with stunning purpose. The only silver lining to be found in the weather is that the cerulean canopy is wondrously gorgeous. It’s an unrelenting type of scorching with no cloud cover and dry winds. The midday sun wants attention in the worst way, trying to outshine Doncic. He then pops a pair of shades on, cops a seat and gets ready to watch a squad from his homeland of Slovenia play a 20-minute exhibition against a local French team. He smiles nice and big with the Tower framed in the background. He’s wearing the “Quai 54” colorway while a village of people trail him to center court. The rhythm of clapping and the melody of cheers is for the arrival of Luka Doncic.ĭoncic strolls in, entering stage right, with his very first signature sneaker, the Jordan Luka 1, on his feet. The collective love echoes high above the red and blue of the 94×50, beyond the Tower and out to the rest of the world, where eager eyes await updates through the internet. They’re loud enough, animated enough and forceful enough for the makeshift court that Jordan Brand has constructed just under the Eiffel Tower to quiver slightly. These passionate people call France home and they call Slovenia home and they call America home and they call other countries unknown home. Here comes a chorus of applause from the crowd at Quai 54 in Paris.
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