Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Dončić protects the basketball in a game against the Washington Wizards.
Credit: © Tony Quinn, Sipa USA/Alamy Images

On Tuesday, December 27th, Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Dončić did not disappoint. He scored the highest stats in a triple-double in NBA history, scoring 60 points, grabbing 21 rebounds, and setting up 10 assists against the New York Knicks. Those are high numbers! This combination of double digits in points, rebounds, and assists is called a triple-double in basketball. Dončić joins Philadelphia 76ers player James Harden as the only player who has reached a 60-point triple-double in NBA history. Dončić stands 6 feet 7 inches (201 centimeters) in height. Born in the southern European nation of Slovenia, Dončić has gained attention for his advanced playmaking skills since he was a boy.

Dončić was born on Feb. 28, 1999, in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. His father, Saša (Sasha), played professional basketball for 18 seasons and later became a coach. At Ljubljana’s Olimpija Basketball School, young Luka regularly dominated games playing against boys a few years older.

In 2012, at the age of 13, he joined the basketball academy for the Real Madrid professional team in Spain. He started playing for Real Madrid’s top-level team in 2015. In 2017, Dončić helped lead the Slovenian national team to its first victory in the European Basketball Championship, a competition also known as EuroBasket. In both 2017 and 2018, he won the Rising Star award in Spain’s ACB professional league. In 2018, Dončić helped lead Real Madrid to the Euroleague championship. He was named the Most Valuable Player of both the league and its championship tournament.

In 2018, the Atlanta Hawks selected Dončić with the third pick in the NBA Draft. Under a prearranged agreement, the Hawks immediately traded him to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for the fifth pick—guard Trae Young—and a future draft pick. During the 2018-2019 NBA season, Dončić averaged about 21 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists per game. He won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. Dončić increased his scoring, rebounding, and assist averages in his second season and was named a starter in the 2020 All-Star game.