Luka Doncic will play in next month's Paris Olympics if his knee allows and could help Slovenia qualify, coming off a season in which he reached the NBA Finals with the Dallas Mavericks.
Slovenia on Wednesday released a list of 16 players, including Doncic, who will be part of the team that will compete in Olympic qualifiers in Greece starting July 2. If Slovenia wins the tournament (which also includes Greece, the Dominican Republic, New Zealand, Croatia and Egypt), it will be named to the 12-man men's team for the Paris Olympics, which begin in late July.
“If I feel good, I'm going to play,” Doncic said Wednesday at NBA Finals media day in Boston, predicting his only obstacle in the playoffs will be his knee issues.
Doncic has represented Slovenia on numerous international stages, including the Tokyo Olympics, which were postponed to 2021 because of the pandemic. He appeared in EuroBasket twice and also played for Slovenia at last year's World Cup, which ended just a few weeks before the Mavericks were set to open training camp for this season.
The league's reigning scoring leader was told Wednesday that he will likely play 90 to 95 games this season, depending on the length of the NBA Finals. Doncic believes that number could be even higher.
“More games,” Doncic said. “I forgot about the World Cup before the season.”
If the series between Dallas and the Boston Celtics continues to seven games, Doncic would also play on June 23. Slovenia is scheduled to play a tournament-leading exhibition match against Brazil in Greece on June 28, so it's possible Doncic could transfer from his club to his national team that same week.
Doncic scored 48 points in his 2021 Olympic debut, tying him for second-most points ever in a men's Olympic game and falling seven shy of the record of 55 points set by Brazil's Oscar Schmidt in 1988.
Eight of the 12 men's Olympic teams have already qualified: host France, and seven others — four-time gold medal winners United States, World Cup champions Germany, Canada, Japan, South Sudan, Serbia and Australia — got there based on their performances at last summer's World Cup in the Philippines.
Slovenia is one of 24 teams competing for the remaining four spots from July 2-7. There will be four qualifying tournaments, with six countries participating in each, and the winners of those four venues will advance to the Paris Olympics.
