What languages does Luka Doncic speak? Lesser known facts about The Don
Dallas Mavericks superstar and Slovenian national team player Luka Doncic has taken the NBA by storm since being drafted third overall in the 2018 rookie draft with his spectacular all-around style of play. But The Don is also multifaceted in other ways, including the number of languages he speaks.
Here are the languages that Luka Doncic speaks and how he acquired them:
#1 A native speaker of Slovenian
Being born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Luka Doncic’s first language is Slovenian. Although he no longer lives there, he still gets to use his knowledge of his native language when he comes across fellow Slovenians in different places he goes to, as well as when he comes home and plays for the national team, the most recent in the 2023 FIBA World Cup in Asia.
In the NBA, he has found himself needing to use Slovenian here and there, and at times, in the most unexpected of circumstances, one of which involved the late great Kobe Bryant, who once jokingly trash-talked the Mavs guard from the sidelines, to the surprise and delight of Doncic.
#2 Playing for Real Madrid, he had to learn Spanish
When he left Slovenia at the age of 13 to play professional basketball in Spain for Real Madrid, Doncic naturally had to learn Spanish.
In time, he became fluent in it, which also comes in handy now that he plays in Dallas, Texas, where a number of Spanish-speaking fans are located.
He showed his depth in Spanish in one of the Mavericks’ games held in Mexico against the Detroit Pistons, where he welcomed the fans right before the game.
#3 Luka Doncic already knew how to speak English even before moving to the US
The Don already knew how to speak English even before he moved to the United States and played for the Dallas Mavericks.
He learned it in school back in Slovenia, where according to data released in 2007, 92% of the population could speak at least one foreign language and 71.8% could speak at least two foreign languages.
While he knows how to speak English, Luka Doncic admits that he is still learning the depth of the language and is getting steady help with his interactions with his teammates and other people around him.
#4 Serbian, thanks to his father
Luka Doncic can also speak fluent Serbian because of his father, who was born in Slovenia but is of Serbian descent.
Also, Slovenians are known to speak at least one of the Serbo-Croatian languages, which include Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin. It also has historical links as Slovenia and Serbia were part of the former Yugoslavia.
It is little wonder then that when he was teammates with Serbian big man Boban Marjanovic, they got along well as Doncic knew his language and culture.