Byron Nelson
Three-time All-Star Luka Doncic was a recent guest on The Old Man and the Three podcast with JJ Redick. During their interview, Doncic recently shared the first time he met Kobe Bryant.
“I met him before; it was in Portland just after I was drafted, it was the Nike campus,” Doncic said on the March 18 episode. “He was there, and the one advice he gave me was, ‘Watch out, they’re gonna come after you because you’re from Europe. They’re gonna try and go after you.’ And it was true.”
“The best players, they gotta work on both ends,” he said to Redick. “…They play the whole game; they handle the ball a lot. You just want to make them tired, work them on both ends of the floor and just go at them. You feel like, when you have the best player on you, you want to score? Yes or yes. It’s a proud moment, too.”
Doncic is under the impression that players around the league have gone after him because of his success over in the Euro League. However, whether they elect to attack him on the offensive end or defensive end, it doesn’t seem to faze him.
So, it seems that he took Bryant’s advice and ran with it.
“The best players, they gotta work on both ends,” Doncic said.” They play the whole game; they handle the ball a lot. You just want to make them tired, work them on both ends of the floor and just go at them. You feel like, when you have the best player on you, you want to score? Yes or yes. It’s a proud moment, too.”
Speaking of Bryant, he was recently inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame and was named to the NBA’s top 75 list.
