‘I Was Batman, Now I’m Robin’: Dragic on Joining Mavs’ Doncic at EuroBasket 2022
Although Goran Dragic won’t join his Slovenian “little brother” Luka Doncic as a member of the Dallas Mavericks this summer — Dragic instead signed with the Chicago Bulls in July — he’ll be joining Doncic on the Slovenia national team for EuroBasket 2022.
It was initially believed that Dragic would retire from international play earlier this summer after Slovenia’s two World Cup qualifying matches earlier this summer. However, on Friday, Dragic tweeted out a picture of him holding the 2017 EuroBasket championship trophy with the caption, "I'M BACK." It is assumed that this will be Dragic's last hurrah with Slovenia.
When Slovenia shocked the world by winning EuroBasket 2017, Dragic was the undisputed leader of the team, as he scored 35 points in the final match against Serbia. This time, though, Dragic knows things will be much different given how much Doncic has grown as a superstar player.
"I will play a little less minutes, it will not be at that (same) level,” said Dragic. “I don’t know how much I played, 36 minutes per game? Everything will depend on how I feel. The role will definitely be different. I was Batman (then), but now I’ll be Robin.
"The most important thing will be to make sure we have good chemistry and be a leader on the court and lift guys up when it’s most difficult.”
Although Dragic will be “Robin” this time around, he’ll still more than capable of putting up a lot of points in a short period of time. He scored 39 points in 46 minutes of play in Slovenia’s wins over Croatia and Sweden earlier this summer.
Before EuroBasket 2022 is over, the Mavs front office might wish they had offered Dragic more than a “cheerleading” role in free agency.
You can follow Dalton Trigg on Twitter at @dalton_trigg
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