Luka Dončić is no stranger to triple-doubles. Just seven seasons into his NBA career, he’s already seventh on the league’s all-time list with 82. Until Sunday, however, he had never recorded one at EuroBasket with Slovenia. In fact, few players ever have at the historic European competition.
With 26 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in Slovenia’s 86-69 win over Belgium on Sunday, Dončić officially became the fourth player in EuroBasket history to record a triple-double. That doesn’t count Croatia’s Stojko Vranković, who had a triple-double with blocks in 1993 prior to it becoming a recorded statistic.
Regardless, Dončić has joined an elite club that includes former Chicago Bulls star Toni Kukoč, who won three titles alongside Michael Jordan.
Triple-doubles at EuroBasket
*Unofficial
|
Luka Dončić |
Slovenia |
2025 |
|
Mateusz Ponitka |
Poland |
2022 |
|
Rareș Mandache |
Romania |
2017 |
|
Toni Kukoč |
Croatia |
1995 |
|
Stojko Vranković* |
Croatia |
1993 |
While Dončić put up a triple-double, he was not at his best Sunday. He shot just 9 of 23 from the field, and was particularly off the mark from 3-point range, where he went 2 of 11. Still, he scored a game-high 26 points and set up his teammates left and right. All told, he either scored or assisted on 51 of Slovenia’s 86 points in just 30 minutes of action.
Through three games, Dončić is now averaging 33 points, 7.3 rebounds and 9.7 assists. He’s leading the tournament in both scoring and assists, and is 13th in rebounding. If there were any concerns about his health after an injury scare during a warm-up game against Latvia earlier this month, he has swiftly erased them.
In addition to his triple-double achievement, Dončić became the youngest player (26 years and 184 days old) to reach 400 EuroBasket points since Tony Parker in 2007 (25 years, 122 days). Furthermore, he became the fastest player in 21st century EuroBasket history (19 games) to reach 400 points, 100 rebounds and 100 assists.
After a frustrating start to their EuroBasket campaign, which included defeats to Poland and France, Slovenia’s win over Belgium moved them up to third place in Group D for the time being. The top four teams in each group (there are six teams per group) advance to the knockout round. Slovenia will conclude group stage play with games against Iceland on Tuesday and Israel on Thursday.
