Vlade Divac, former general manager of the Sacramento Kings, finally shared some details behind the process that led him to pass on superstar Luka Doncic in the 2018 NBA Draft.
The Kings had the second overall pick in 2018 and ended up taking Duke’s power forward Marvin Bagley III. This left the door open for the Dallas Mavericks to trade for the third overall pick and snap up Doncic, who proceeded to become one of the best basketball players in the world.
In a recent interview with a Croatian media outlet Index, Divac attempted to justify the move by saying that he believed the Kings already had a franchise point guard in De’Aaron Fox.
“I had De’Aaron Fox at that position, whom I drafted a year earlier. At that moment, I thought that Fox was a player who could become a franchise player in the next period, “said Divac. “Time will tell if I was wrong. As things stand now, it looks like I am, but I have faith in Fox that he will have a better career.”
While there is no denying that Fox is a great player, it is safe to say that he isn’t even close to Doncic. Fox has just one All-Star nod and one All-NBA Third Team selection in his career, while Doncic is already a perennial MVP candidate who made All-Star and received All-NBA First Team honors in all of the past five seasons.
What further hurts Divac’s argument is that Bagley turned out to be a bust. He lasted three-and-a-half underwhelming seasons in Sacramento and is now on his third NBA team.
The decision to pass on Doncic ended up costing Divac his job. He stepped down at the end of the 2019-20 season after the team missed out on the playoffs in all of his four years as GM.
