Had you asked Luka Doncic a few days ago to describe his dream Olympic Games debut, he would barely have imagined a scenario where he would score 48 points to lead Slovenia to their first ever win in the tournament.
Aged 22, the Dallas Mavericks franchise player took to the court and dominated Argentina, leading his team almost single-handedly to a 118-100 triumph over one of the favourites to win an Olympic medal.
The record he almost broke
Doncic scored as many as 31 points in the first half and forced Slovenia's coaching staff and players to search the record books to find the name of the player who holds the record of the most points scored in a single Olympic Games' basketball match.
The record was set by Oscar Schmidt back in 1988, when the Brazilian registered 55 points, with Doncic coming very close to matching that tally. He did tie Eddie Palubinskas' record, as the Australian scored 48 in 1976.
"Everybody was telling him on the bench, 'OK, let's get the record,'" his teammate Zoran Dragic revealed.
"But that's not the case. The case is to win the game. He knows that and it's crazy that he's only 22 years old."
Doncic agreed with Dragic that what matters the most in games against strong opponents in big tournaments is to grab a victory and move on.
"I don't care about records," he said.
"We got a win and that's what we came here for."
In pursuit of top spot in the group of death
Featuring in Group C along with two of the strongest teams in the tournament in Argentina and Spain, as well as hosts Japan, was never going to be an easy task for Slovenia.
However, the 2017 EuroBasket winners have a concrete backbone of experienced players such as Jaka Blazic, Klemen Prepelic and Dragic, who have played together for years, as well as a 22-year-old born leader in Doncic.
After inspiring Real Madrid to EuroLeague glory in 2018 and Slovenia to the EuroBasket triumph one year earlier, the Mavericks star could help his national team manage something that seemed unthinkable a few years ago and win a medal in their Olympic Games debut.
The greatness of Luka Doncic - MARCA.com
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