NBA Draft Prospect Luka Doncic Loves American Chain Restaurants And Los Angeles


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Luka Doncic is almost assuredly going to go in the Top 5 of the 2018 NBA Draft, with a real chance to be selected with one of the first two picks. If that’s the case, he’ll be the highest non-college playing international draft pick since Andrea Bargnani in 2006, but he’ll be hoping to follow more in the footsteps of Kristaps Porzingis (selected 4th overall in 2015) and continue rewriting the narrative around foreign players in the draft.

It’s hard to poke holes in Doncic’s game, and the best efforts usually involve pointing to whether he’s quick enough on defense to be a positive presence on that end in the NBA. However, his offensive skills and size make him dangerous — he sees a lot of Ben Simmons’ game in himself — and his dominance in EuroLeague action should put to rest any questions as to whether he can at the least be a solid impact player in the NBA.

One of the questions many have about a European prospect coming to the NBA is how they’ll handle the dramatic culture change of coming to a new country. While often an overstated issue, it is something that for some can present a challenge. Not only do they have to step up in competition, but they suddenly are facing a variety of new challenges in adjusting to a new place and a very different life than they had grown accustomed to at home.

Doncic seems fairly eager to embrace American culture, however. In a recent profile on the 18-year-old sensation, ESPN’s Mina Kimes highlights how the precocious point guard has thoroughly enjoyed his first tastes of America (both literally and figuratively). Kimes notes that in the car, Doncic happily sings along to “Bad and Boujee” by the Migos in the car and in separate paragraphs notes two of his favorite restaurants.

Traffic slows as we cruise through the center of the city, and some of the pedestrians stare at Doncic’s car. He points out a Five Guys, the American fast-food chain. “It’s amazing,” he says.

Doncic parks his car in a garage, then leads us to one of his favorite restaurants in Madrid: the Hard Rock Cafe. … Doncic, speaking in Spanish, orders the Famous Fajitas (they’re amazing, he tells me) and a plate of nachos. “Con doble queso,” he says.

I look forward to Doncic taking part in the great chain hamburger debate when he comes over to whatever team drafts him, and if he ends up on the West Coast or in Texas, if he remains a Five Guys loyalist it may strain the relationship with the locals that are In-N-Out or Whataburger loyalists. As for actually traveling to the U.S., Doncic’s only in-person experience was a trip to P3, the famed performance center in Santa Barbara, and in that time he fell in love with Los Angeles.

Two summers ago, Doncic spent two weeks in Santa Barbara, California, at P3, a sports science and workout facility that draws many NBA stars. The town reminded him of a Spanish village, he says. On the weekends, he took trips to Los Angeles with his mother and his girlfriend, who had flown in from Slovenia, visiting Hollywood Boulevard, Rodeo Drive (he was impressed by the giant Nike store nearby) and Six Flags. “LA is amazing for me. I especially like the amazing cars,” he says. “I was at Venice Beach for … what was the serial there, Baywatch? And it was amazing.”

Doncic will almost assuredly not start his NBA career in L.A. (although you better believe the #FutureLaker photoshops will begin shortly after his arrival stateside) but he seems ready to embrace his future home whenever that time comes. The rest of his interactions with American culture come from Netflix, where he’s watched all of Friends and is working on How I Met Your Mother right now, which has him interested in visiting New York.

Hopefully he can get past how obnoxious Ted Mosby is and not hold that against the American people as a whole as he moves through that series.

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