Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic says that he “never had a doubt” that he would sign a contract extension with the team, and that’s exactly what he did when he officially signed the five-year, $207 million contract extension on Tuesday morning.
“It’s a really special moment here. Thank you to Dallas for offering me this,” Doncic said, according to ESPN’s Royce Young. “I still kind of don’t know what to say because I never imagined this happening. I was only dreaming to only play in the NBA, but now I can sign an extension with the Dallas Mavericks for five more years, which I never had a doubt about. I always wanted to sign this.”
“This is a big day,” Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said. “When we drafted Luka in 2018, we had an inkling he was good. But we never imagined he was this good. That’s the culmination of a lot of hard work on his part. He didn’t just show up, he put in the time his entire life.
“To be able to announce he signed an extension with the Dallas Mavericks and we want to have him copy — not copy, but have the same type of Hall of Fame career if not more than Dirk [Nowitzki], who’s sitting here in the front row.”
“Yeah it’s a great sum, but I’m not still not thinking about this,” Doncic said, via the interpreter. “I haven’t bought myself anything worthwhile yet from this. But I need to process it more before I start spending.”
The Mavericks presented the contract to Doncic in person by traveling to Ljubljana, Slovenia.
“Just to confirm to Luka how important he is to us and how this is just the beginning,” Cuban said. “We want him to know we’re there for him, whether that’s here in Slovenia, in Dallas, or anywhere in the world. Part of this process is not only getting to know him, but getting to know what’s important to him. How he looks at things. Coming here, walking around the city and spending time with him and meeting the people of Ljubljana, that’s enabled us to take that first step.”
“It means a lot. It’s incredible,” Doncic said. “It says a lot about you guys coming here to Ljubljana. You’re great people and I’m very thankful this is happening.”
“The first I heard of [Doncic] was when [Real Madrid] played the Thunder in a preseason game and I watched the game,” Cuban said. “Obviously there was a lot of talk about him and I think he scored on Russell Westbrook I think it was, or guarded Russell or something like that, and it got people’s attention. I followed him from there and we spoke about him a lot.”
Doncic said he never doubted a deal would get done.
“First of all, how I feel about being in Dallas, it feels like a second home. It feels like home there, I feel great,” he said. “The people who work for the organization are great people. I just feel good there. I can say nothing else.”
