Jason Kidd thinks the best to ever do it on the Mavericks is still wearing the Dallas uniform.
The Pro Basketball Hall of Fame guard and current Mavericks head coach made an appearance on 97.1 The Freak’s “The Downbeat” in Dallas on Tuesday and declared that not only his Luka Doncic better than Mavericks great Dirk Nowitzki, but the Slovenian star is in the pantheon of greats in the entire sport.
“I’ve said this before, and I’ll say this for as long as I’m here, you can’t take this young man [Doncic] for granted,” Kidd said on the program. “He’s better than Dirk, he’s in the atmosphere of MJ — the best to ever do it. LeBron [James], Kobe [Byrant], and so just to appreciate what this young man is doing at the age of 24 is something that Dallas has never seen.
“And I’ve said this internally, he is better than Dirk. He does things that Dirk could never do. And now is the opportunity of getting the right people around him to ultimately win a championship.”
When Kidd was asked to clarify about Doncic being better than Nowitzki despite not reaching an NBA Finals in his young career, the coach did not back down from his assessment.
And not just that, Kidd added that Doncic, 24, has the stuff to win multiple NBA Finals.
“MJ is the same way,” Kidd said. “MJ didn’t make it until his 30s. This man [Doncic] is 24 and breaking all the records that stand in front of him. And he’s a winner, and his ultimate goal is to win a championship. And he will get there and not just win, but he will win multiple when it’s all said and done.”
Since entering the NBA, Doncic has been among the game’s elite, winning the 2018-19 Rookie of the Year before getting named to five straight All-Star teams, mostly recently getting tabbed a starter for this year’s event.
Through 40 games this season, Doncic has averaged a career-high 34.7 points and 9.6 assists with 8.6 rebounds per night.
This comes after a Friday night in which the superstar scored 73 points, the most in Mavericks history and fourth-most for an NBA single game.
Nowitzki, the 2006-07 NBA MVP and 2010-11 NBA Finals MVP, never averaged more than 26.6 points per game in any season during his Hall of Fame career.
The most he ever put up in a game was 53 points, which he did on Dec. 2, 2004.
Over Doncic’s career, he has posted seven games with at least 50 points.
Nowitzki pulled off the feat twice in 21 years.
Dallas sits at 26-21 and in seventh place in the Western Conference after missing the playoffs last season.
