By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Charles Barkley has made quite the U-turn on his opinion about Luka Doncic.
Once upon a time, Barkley was skeptical (to say the least) about how Doncic’s game would translate in the NBA. But now, the 11-time All-Star believes that the Mavericks point forward is “the real deal.”
“That boy Doncic… he’s the real deal. As we said in my day: That’s a baaad white boy. He’s not there but we’re getting really close to little black kids in the ‘hood wearing his jersey. Really close,” Doncic said per Brad Townsend.
Charles Barkley on @luka7doncic: “That’s a bad white boy . . . we’re getting really close to little black kids in the ‘hood wearing his jersey.”https://t.co/ElgvorCtkn pic.twitter.com/nYN3QsaVtl
— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) February 15, 2019
Despite Doncic’s sheer dominance in the 2018-2019 EuroLeague season and although the he won every team trophy and individual award there is to collect Barkley didn’t really believe that the Slovenian player was worthy of the whole hype.
“He was the MVP. Well, that tells me he was playing against sh–ty competition,” Barkley had mentioned prior to the 2018 Draft.
Some months later, Doncic is averaging 20.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 5.6 assists and is the frontrunner to win Rookie of the Year.