A Mark Cuban-led Mavericks contingent arrived Monday in Ljubljana, Slovenia to hand-deliver Luka Doncic’s five-year, $207 million supermax contract extension to the 22-year-old superstar.
By night’s end in Slovenia, Doncic’s agent, Bill Duffy, told The News that an agreement has been reached. Duffy was in Ljubljana to hammer out the final details with Mavericks officials. The Mavericks announced that they will hold an 8 a.m. news conference (Dallas time) to formally announce the deal. The news conference will be streamed on Mavs.com and Dallasnews.com. Ljublana is seven hours ahead of Dallas.
It’s been a whirlwind few days for Doncic, who led Slovenia’s national team to its first Olympics appearance and a fourth-place finish in Tokyo. The team returned to a heroes’ welcome from tens of thousands of cheering fans. And, now, Doncic will sign the richest contract in Mavericks history.
On Monday, a large Mavericks contingent led by Cuban, new president of basketball operations Nico Harrison, coach Jason Kidd and special adviser Dirk Nowitzki landed in Ljubljana, causing a frenzy among reporters and on social media. Fans tweeted photos of Cuban at the Ljubjana airport, and not long after that someone tweeted video of Nowitzki, Kidd, vice president of basketball operations Michael Finley and Mavericks director of player performance Casey Smith walking through downtown.
Multiple local TV reporters caught up with a strolling Kidd and interviewed him on a sidewalk.
“What a beautiful day,” Kidd told them. “I look forward to coming back to Slovenia, not just because of Luka but because of the city.”
Kidd said the Mavericks contingent would be in Ljubjana for two days. When asked when the signing of Doncic would occur, Kidd said “I think that’s happening this afternoon.” Kidd said there were “no surprises” in terms of negotiations.
Monday marked the first time that Doncic has met face-to-face with Harrison and Kidd since they were hired in June to replace, respectively, Donnie Nelson and Rick Carlisle.
