{"id":803369,"date":"2026-08-04T08:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T08:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/803369\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T08:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T08:06:13","slug":"rick-carlisle-compares-luka-doncic-to-magic-johnson-and-larry-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/803369\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Carlisle compares Luka Doncic to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aug. 3, 2026, 9:39 p.m. PT<\/p>\n

For the past two decades or so, Rick Carlisle has been known as one of the better coaches in the NBA. He laid down the foundation for the culture that would allow the Detroit Pistons<\/a> to win it all when he was their head coach in the early 2000s, and he later guided the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> to the championship in 2011. He will now look to make his Indiana Pacers<\/a> contenders again after they went through a gap year with Tyrese Haliburton sidelined due to a torn Achilles.<\/p>\n

In a previous life, Carlisle played on the Boston Celtics during the mid-1980s, which meant he was teammates with Larry Bird and played against Magic Johnson in the NBA Finals. In his last three years as the Mavericks’ coach, he worked with another living legend by the name of Luka Doncic.<\/p>\n

Carlisle recently went on “The Draymond Green Show” and talked about<\/a> the time when Doncic was new to the league and he felt that the Slovenian had a game that resembled that of Johnson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Luka came, he came in the fall and the first day of pickup games, he\u2019s playing and we have a pretty good veteran team,\u201d Carlisle said during an appearance on The Draymond Green Show. \u201cWe had DeAndre Jordan, we had Wes Matthews, we had Harrison Barnes who won a championship with you, and some other really good players. And Luka\u2019s playing with these guys, and he is playing like Magic Johnson. He is rebounding and he is throwing dimes like all over the place. He wasn\u2019t even really looking to score. And I\u2019m like, \u2018Guys, this guy is like a Magic Johnson-type player.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then we get into the season and I wasn\u2019t really sure what position he was gonna be. I thought he was probably gonna be a 3-man because he was almost 6\u20198. But he kept saying he\u2019s a point guard and after eight or 10 games we put him at point and put Dennis Smith off the ball and the rest is pretty much history.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a historic first three years. And I said this during the year, from a talent standpoint, ability and everything else, he\u2019s the most unique player I\u2019ve ever worked with. He\u2019s just so so good and he\u2019s a killer. He\u2019s a killer competitor too. You put the right guys around him and I defy you to figure out a way to beat him because he is smart as hell and he knows every trick in the book and he knows how to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlisle also compared Doncic to Johnson’s arch-rival — Bird.<\/p>\n

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\u201cGuys like Bird, I’m trying to think of somebody today who’s like that. Luka, Luka’s got a lot of that. He has fun with the game. He talks [expletive]. He’s brash, all that kind of stuff,\u201d Carlisle said. \u201cLarry did it a little more under his breath at times. Other times he stepped up, he got in fights and other stuff like that, but as a competitor, I put him up there with Jordan and all the greatest guys, Russell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doncic is 27 years of age and has just entered the prime of his career. He’s coming off an MVP-caliber season during which he averaged 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists a game and won his second scoring title. The Lakers are now unquestionably his team after LeBron James departed to join the Philadelphia 76ers.<\/p>\n

They have now built a roster that is designed to complement and support him, not just offensively but even defensively as well. Los Angeles got him a defensive-minded lob threat at the 5 in Walker Kessler, a couple of scoring guards in Quentin Grimes and Collin Sexton who can attack off the dribble and a couple of defensive-minded wings in Ziaire Williams and Matisse Thybulle.<\/p>\n

The makings of a Doncic-centric championship team could already be in place, even though it isn’t complete by any means. By winning championships in the coming years, Doncic can put his name alongside Johnson and Bird as one of the greatest players and competitors in the history of the sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aug. 3, 2026, 9:39 p.m. PT For the past two decades or so, Rick Carlisle has been known…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[72400,7,113,126,3866,6,114,90545,53093,72522,72404,72934,73765,72464,72471,72467,72689,73132,72444,72422,72405,72750,72406,72600,72403],"class_list":["post-803369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indiana-pacers","tag-accessfree","tag-basketball","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-indianapacers","tag-nba","tag-pacers","tag-sourcelebron-wire","tag-sstssportsnba","tag-sstsnnba","tag-tagbasketball","tag-tagcalifornia-gold-rush","tag-tagcgr-sports","tag-tagdallas-mavericks","tag-tagdetroit-pistons","tag-tagindiana-pacers","tag-taglos-angeles-lakers","tag-tagluka-doncic","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnba","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagrick-carlisle","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagwalker-kessler","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117036212752630872","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}