Jalen Brunson: ‘Luka Doncic Should Be First-Ballot Hall of Famer’

Former Dallas Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson still has loads of respect for Luka Doncic.

Dalton Trigg | Sep 9, 2022

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Dallas Mavericks

Until last season, Jalen Brunson thought he’d stay with the Dallas Mavericks for his entire career. However, it wasn’t meant to be, as he left the Mavs for the New York Knicks in free agency on a $104 million contract.

Although Brunson isn’t on the Mavs’ roster anymore, he still has a high level of respect for his former superstar teammate Luka Doncic. Together, Doncic and Brunson led the Mavs to the Western Conference Finals last season. Brunson saw enough from Doncic during his four seasons in Dallas to form a very strong opinion about his Hall of Fame candidacy.

During an interview with USA Today's Sports Seriously, Brunson revealed that opinion and talked about what it was like to play with Doncic over the last few years.

“It wasn’t really difficult (to play alongside him) because you knew what it was. Luka is such a great talent. He can do anything on the court," said Brunson. "I think, for me, I kind of figured out how to play with him because he’s so dominant. He knows how to play the game, he knows how to help his team win. I truly loved playing with him because we were in a position to win every night, because of him.

"I’ve said this numerous times and I’ll continue to say it until I speak it into existence; That dude is a first-ballot Hall of Famer.”

Although losing Brunson might hurt the Mavs this season if they can’t find another secondary playmaker to add to their bench, having a player of Doncic’s caliber fully healthy and in great shape will always give them a chance to beat any opponent on any given night.

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Published Sep 9, 2022

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.