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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Bryan Kalbrosky

Luka Doncic says he just plays chess on his phone and never uses Twitter, which must be so nice

Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic is a once-in-a-generation talent in the NBA. But what does he do when he’s not on the court?

Doncic enjoys Balkan food and playing video games — including FIFA and Call of Duty. The Slovenian-born guard spends his offseason traveling, and sometimes to the island of Krk in Croatia (where he hung out with Shaquille O’Neal).

Unlike other players from his generation, Doncic said he doesn’t spend too much time on social media (bless his heart). When asked why, he said that if he is on his phone, it’s actually just because he is playing chess.

I love picturing Doncic, who has called mathematics his favorite subject in school, dismantling his opponents in chess the way that he does in the NBA.

He isn’t able to complain about calls when he is playing against a computer on his phone, but it’s easy to imagine that he probably still gets frustrated a decent amount.

Doncic’s comments about chess got the attention of reigning five-time World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov.

Obviously, people pretend to be someone that they’re not online all the time.

But there is at least a small possibility that this profile on Chess.com, with the username Luka Doncic, belongs to the Dallas superstar.

If so, Doncic (or whoever runs this account) might be pretty good! This player, who is possibly Doncic, has 948 wins as well as 119 draws and 633 losses.

There is an awesome photo of Doncic playing chess by the pool during the NBA’s bubble season in Orlando in 2020:

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