Sacramento Kings reportedly passed on Luka Doncic because GM Vlade Divac didn’t like his dad

[UcanUwill]

There were other factors too.
Remember how people were pointing out how top prospects refused to give their medical records to Sacramento?
Bagley actually showed up for a workout for the Kings. I think perhaps the Kings got spooked by the prospect of a unhappy Doncic.

Doncic, Vlade and Vivek had dinner in SPain right before the draft, morale looked great, and both Vlde and Vivek were in the arena when Doncic had one of the better games of the season.

[UcanUwill]

This is nonsense

If you have two apparently equal talented specimens as Bagley/Luka were at the time

Haha good one

Nice response from a former moderator

Yeah, Bagley was a phenomenal college player and was long considered in the discussion for the top pick of the class for years

Maybe by the summer Luka was in the majority of top two consensus, but not by much. And there was no solid delineation between the two then.

It was a surprise, not a shock the Kings went that direction. Even I wonder if a majority of the non top tier GMs would’ve made the same move to not draft the ball dominant guy when you just drafted Fox

Even if the reasoning was not absurd though, it doesn’t excuse the outcome. Divac needs to be held accountable at this point

Doncic was by far the most accomplshed draft prospect ever, and you comparing him to Bagley, just another ordinary 5 star recruit? Its NBA execs job to be smarter than internet mockdraft. Vlade screwed up, and most people at the time already knew he screwed, we didnt know he screwed up THIS MUCH, because Doncic is exceeding even best expectations, but he screwed up big.

[Pachinko_]

There were other factors too.
Remember how people were pointing out how top prospects refused to give their medical records to Sacramento?
Bagley actually showed up for a workout for the Kings. I think perhaps the Kings got spooked by the prospect of a unhappy Doncic.

Doncic, Vlade and Vivek had dinner in SPain right before the draft, morale looked great, and both Vlde and Vivek were in the arena when Doncic had one of the better games of the season.

Exactly
At that point I was certain Phoenix was going for Ayton and Vlade 100% was getting Luka
What the hell happened?

[CalL]

I think if the Kings would have drafted Doncic, they would be a contender by now. By drafting Doncic they would have been able to trade 2 out of Hield, Fox and Bogdanovic and i think they would have gotten a lot of value for them. In the end i would say that Sacramento still has a great future and if they win a title in the future, then their fans shouldn't be too sad about not getting Doncic.
Personally i think that Doncic ending up in Dallas is a great thing, because he was able to follow in the footsteps of Nowitzki there and it would be a great story if Dallas would become the franchise with the 2 best european players in history.

[reflex35]

Nobody can explain this.
I mean - why Vlade did not choose Luka?
Luka's father is Serbian...
Something probably happened down the line as there is no other explanation.

Either Doncic did not want to join Kings or they had an argument or some emotions and anger was involved...
It's just hard to explain rationally.
This is one of the mysteries of current NBA and hopefully we will get a full story someday.

[Sgt Major]

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[Archx]

There were other factors too.
Remember how people were pointing out how top prospects refused to give their medical records to Sacramento?
Bagley actually showed up for a workout for the Kings. I think perhaps the Kings got spooked by the prospect of a unhappy Doncic.

Doncic, Vlade and Vivek had dinner in SPain right before the draft, morale looked great, and both Vlde and Vivek were in the arena when Doncic had one of the better games of the season.

Exactly
At that point I was certain Phoenix was going for Ayton and Vlade 100% was getting Luka
What the hell happened?

It was one of those "Stauskas" moments, aka we need a big, lets take Bagley, something like that. I see people keep saying Doncic's dad is Serbian, he's Slovenian, so i seriously doubt he had any talks or connections to Vlade. The reason for that is, Luka and his dad even rarely talk, so decision to not draft him was purely because Vlade didn't see him fitting on his team.

[Side beard]

This is nonsense

If you have two apparently equal talented specimens as Bagley/Luka were at the time, one dominating college the other an unathletic ball dominant euro, I can see how you could take fit

That said, he needs to be fired for this and his long questionable career

Because, as history shows, these athletic high jumper college players succeed in NBA way more often than unathletic shooter.

And to who say that Luka said he did not want to play for the Kings. Since when a draftee can chose what team he will play for? I get it, there are legends about Kobe and Magic, but for Luka to have such powerful saying in NBA draft just seems like nonsense.

[FinnTheHuman]

Nobody can explain this.
I mean - why Vlade did not choose Luka?
Luka's father is Serbian...
Something probably happened down the line as there is no other explanation.

Either Doncic did not want to join Kings or they had an argument or some emotions and anger was involved...
It's just hard to explain rationally.
This is one of the mysteries of current NBA and hopefully we will get a full story someday.

The whole front office of any team is usually heavily involved in drafting high picks. Nobody would let Vlade skip Doncic because of anything other than basketball reasons he had at the time. Just imagine a couple of meetings ending up with Vlade, Vivek and the others agreeing that they think that Bagley will turn out to be the better pick for them for basketball reasons, and that's exactly what happened.

[Stribor]

Nobody can explain this.
I mean - why Vlade did not choose Luka?
Luka's father is Serbian...
Something probably happened down the line as there is no other explanation.

Either Doncic did not want to join Kings or they had an argument or some emotions and anger was involved...
It's just hard to explain rationally.
This is one of the mysteries of current NBA and hopefully we will get a full story someday.

Perhaps precisely because of that. If Luka flopped, everyone would say he took him cause his father is Serbian. By not choosing him, he played safe, and probably did not expect this level of production from Luka.

[Pg81]

Do we have factual evidence for this claim or just an anecdote?

We just have Tim McMahon's word, as far as I know.

So basically it is just a rumor.

[Lepramaniac]

I just don't understand how besides Vlade, 2 other GM's chose not to take a 'gamble' on Luka. Even if he ended up being a bust or his game didn't end up adapting well to the NBA, it was worth the risk since he was the best foreign prospect EVER. It's not like the choice was between Luka and another potential generational player like Zion. Dayton, Bagley or Young were good prospects as well but none of them was seen as having superstar potential. For me it's pretty obvious: if you have the choice of picking a potential generational talent like Luka, even if it's risky, you take it. The reward was just too big.

[UcanUwill]

There were other factors too.
Remember how people were pointing out how top prospects refused to give their medical records to Sacramento?
Bagley actually showed up for a workout for the Kings. I think perhaps the Kings got spooked by the prospect of a unhappy Doncic.

Doncic, Vlade and Vivek had dinner in SPain right before the draft, morale looked great, and both Vlde and Vivek were in the arena when Doncic had one of the better games of the season.

Exactly
At that point I was certain Phoenix was going for Ayton and Vlade 100% was getting Luka
What the hell happened?

Likewise, I was very surprised when they took Bagley.

[scrabbarista]

Do we have factual evidence for this claim or just an anecdote?

We just have Tim McMahon's word, as far as I know.

So basically it is just a rumor.

Depends on how trustworthy you think McMahon is, I guess.

Even if this is to any extent true, there are several other possible factors as to why the Kings didn't select Doncic. First, of course, was their stated belief that they didn't want to stunt Fox's growth. [EDIT: Fox also made a statement at the time that clearly implied he preferred Bagley over Doncic. I remember commenting on it on RGM. I believed at the time that the Fox's opinion would have some influence on who the Kings picked.] Second was the fact that Bagley was the only top five pick who showed any signs of wanting to be in Sacramento. I believe Doncic did not work out for the Kings, and I know he did not release his medical records to them. Third, the period when Doncic was most heavily scouted by NBA scouts happened to coincide with one of the worst stretches of his career in Europe. Although the reality was probably that Doncic was just exhausted from such a heavy playing schedule, some scouts may have bought into the idea that he was troubled by the long, athletic defenders he faced during that time.

Obviously, no matter the reasons, the Kings messed up the pick badly. So did Phoenix and Atlanta. Worked out great for Dallas and Doncic, though. Personally, I'm just enjoying the show - not really stressing about a draft that's more than a year old now.

[Pantsman]

Not true. Sources said that Doncic told the people from the Kings that he didn't want to go to Sacramento.

OnePlus 6/Tapatalk

Or he told the kings not to draft him because his dad and Vlade didn’t like eachother.

[Texas Chuck]

This is an opinion of 1 reporter now everyone is grabbing the story. I don't believe it. Vlade had 2 dinners with Luka in Spain and in Belgrade after final4, his dad had nothing to do with it.

People will believe anything to bash Vlade or Vivek. Nothing new

I'm not here to bash, but even the most optimistic, see the glass as half full Kings fan absolutely has to understand they have given plenty of reasons to doubt their competence, right?

I get you want to just label everyone who criticizes them haters, but there is substantive reasons to criticize them that go well beyond passing on Luka.

[Archx]

We just have Tim McMahon's word, as far as I know.

So basically it is just a rumor.

I believe Doncic did not work out for the Kings, and I know he did not release his medical records to them. Third, the period when Doncic was most heavily scouted by NBA scouts happened to coincide with one of the worst stretches of his career in Europe. Although the reality was probably that Doncic was just exhausted from such a heavy playing schedule, some scouts may have bought into the idea that he was troubled by the long, athletic defenders he faced during that time.

I will only quote you on this section because this is wrong to some extent. Luka was playing in EU for so long that he almost missed the draft. There was no chance to work out for anyone. Suns talked to him over the phone once i believe, Kings sent a delegation to EU multiple times (and he did play very well in those games contrary to what you said, he also won MVP afterwards in Belgrade with Divac there), and Hawks also told the media that they wanted him and were ready to take him but Mavs convinced them to trade with the extra pick.

[BoogieTime]

This is nonsense

If you have two apparently equal talented specimens as Bagley/Luka were at the time, one dominating college the other an unathletic ball dominant euro, I can see how you could take fit

That said, he needs to be fired for this and his long questionable career

I'd say it was more like one guy who was dominating the 2nd strongest competition in the world (Euroleague) at 19 years old against grown men vs other guy who wasn't even the top prospect in a much weaker tournament (NCAA) against kids. I don't know how could anyone value them equal, honestly. Let's just say it was either 1) a bias against Euro/foreign players since there was never a foreign prospect like Luka dominating European competitions at that age or 2) Seriously overestimating athleticism & underestimating basketball IQ.

However you want to look at it, there wasn’t a clear tier delineation IMO. We can look at old mocks, grades, draft threads. Last year it was
Zion

Morant

Barrett

That year it was

Ayton
Luka
JJJ/Bagley

IMO

[timO]

kings are gonna kong

[MeloRoseNoah]

This is the one time where you mess up by not thinking with your penis.

Luka Donic's mother is milf. That alone is auto contention for #1.