DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks used the No. 30 pick in last month’s NBA Draft to trade up five spots and acquire the rights to Sergio De Larrea, a wing-sized guard who spent last season with the Spanish club Valencia.In a phone call with Dallas decision-makers on draft night, De Larrea mentioned that he had been a Mavericks supporter before his professional career started to take off.On Monday, fresh off going through his first summer-league practice with the Mavericks, De Larrea said that his fandom for the team stemmed from watching Luka Dončić, the stepback-3-loving Slovenian who first began to break out as a star with the Spanish club Real Madrid.“I saw Luka when he came from Madrid to here,” said De Larrea, who was born in Valladolid, about an hour northwest of Madrid via train. “He was for me, like, my idol in my younger era. For that reason, I was a Maverick fan a long time ago.”Dončić was 13 years old when he began playing for Real Madrid and spent six seasons with the club. In 2018, a then-19-year-old Dončić became the youngest player to win EuroLeague MVP. Convinced that he could become a transcendent player, the Mavericks later that year traded away a future first-round pick to acquire his rights in a draft-night deal with the Atlanta Hawks.
‘Idol’ Luka Dončić made Sergio De Larrea a Mavericks fan years ago
De Larrea, one of the Mavericks' two first-round picks last month, had never visited the U.S. before arriving in Dallas last week.
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