“He was playing against sh—y competition” – Charles Barkley dismissed all of Luka Doncic’s pre-NBA accomplishments originally appeared on Basketball Network.
A couple of days before the 2018 NBA Draft, Charles Barkley declared that he would not pick Slovenian wunderkind Luka Doncic if he owned one of the Top 2 picks in the draft. According to Barkley, Doncic’s accomplishments were too good to be true and were likely the product of inferior competition more than superior talent.
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The 19-year-old Doncic was then the reigning Euroleague, Euroleague Final Four and ACB MVP heading to the June 21 event in New York. But while scouts and coaches raved about these accomplishments, Barkley dismissed them outright.
“I don’t trust foreign competition. I don’t have nothing against foreign players. I just don’t know what kind of a competition it is. They’re like, at 18 years old, he was the MVP. Well, that tells me he was playing against shi—y competition. Nobody at 18 should be dominating grown men. I don’t care how bad the grown men are,” said the Hall of Famer on the Planet Pollard podcast via Eurohoops.net.
Doncic began playing pro ball at the age of 16
What Doncic was doing at such a young age was unheard of. But Barkley probably did not consider that the Slovenian didn’t just show up as a 19-year-old in 2018 and suddenly dominate the competition.
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Doncic made his professional debut for Real Madrid in April 2015. At 16 years and two months old, he was the youngest player to play for Real Madrid and the third-youngest in the history of the ACB. With his playing time and game experience increasing after every season played, he got better every year, and in 2018, the stars aligned for a dominant season that no one had ever seen before.
“You go back and look at the NBA. I’ve been in the NBA for over 30 years. There’s only one 18-year-old that you can go back and say, ‘Oh, he’s the real deal.’ That’s LeBron James. People forget that, as great as Kobe Bryant was, he struggled for the first few years. Kevin Garnett? Struggled in his first few years,” Barkley added.
Luka was the real deal
Interestingly, Barkley proved prophetic because the Phoenix Suns drafted Deandre Ayton with the first overall pick, while the Sacramento Kings took Marvin Bagley III second overall. Doncic was picked after Ayton and Bagley, but when it was time to play, he outshone everyone in his class, including the two players drafted before him.
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He became the second European player after Pau Gasol to win the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award, averaging an impressive 21.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game, which was even better than LeBron James’ rookie statline of 20.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game.
One season later, Barkley was singing a different tune, calling Luka a “bad white boy.”
Doncic went on to earn five consecutive All-Star and All-NBA first team selections from 2020-24. He would have done so again this past season, but he did not play enough games due to injury to qualify for the end-of-season awards.
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If we do a redraft of the 2018 class, Doncic would be the No.1 overall pick, regardless of which team picks first. Even Barkley, who had his doubts initially, would agree with that.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Aug 19, 2025, where it first appeared.