When a player averages nearly 40 in the playoffs, carries his country through EuroBasket history, and then gets traded to the Los Angeles Lakers before turning 27, the comparisons are inevitable. But what happens when those comparisons come from inside the game, from coaches who’ve lived it? That’s exactly what happened this week when God Shammgod, no stranger to the inner workings of Dallas, linked Luka Doncic’s mentality to Kobe Bryant’s. And suddenly, the Luka conversation feels a lot different.

“The way you handle it going out means something to me, you know what I’m saying?” Shammgod said on the It Is What It Is podcast, before launching into a passionate defense of Doncic’s competitive fire. “When the game was the biggest and the brightest, he was never a passenger, he was always a driver. You know what I’m saying? And with it, like for me, for me is Jordan, Kobe, Luka when it comes to the it factor, right?”

That’s heavy company. And the numbers back him up. Last postseason, he averaged 39-9 while logging more minutes than anyone else in the league across both regular season and playoffs, as Shammgod noted. Kobe at 26?

A three-time champion, a scoring assassin, and widely considered Jordan’s heir. Luka hasn’t matched the jewelry yet, but he’s matching the moment-to-moment dominance. Shammgod didn’t hold back words about the comparisons. “Like the man’s 25. He’s the second all-time leading scorer in playoff history. You know how many people play this game?” he said. “Last year, when we went to the Finals, Luka led every six categories — even steals.”

It also didn’t take too long for Luka to etch his name alongside Kobe Bryant in the Lakers’ record books. In April, he became just the second Laker ever to post 35+ points, 5+ rebounds, 5+ assists, and 5+ threes in back-to-back games, a feat Bryant first accomplished in December 2006.

The parallels between the two stars run deeper than the stat line. Both reached that level of production at just 22 years old, unfathomable scoring prowess at an age when most players are still adjusting to the league. Doncic averaged 27.7 ppg during the 2020–21 season (a shortened 72-game campaign), while Bryant put up 28.5 ppg in 2000–01.

Just as importantly, their scoring translated to team success. Luka led Dallas to a 42–30 record in 2021, while Bryant powered the Lakers to 56–26 in 2001—a season that ended with a championship.

That do-it-all dominance echoes Kobe’s playoff takeovers in the early 2000s. But Luka’s story comes with a modern twist. He’s never demanded trades, roster cuts, or more help. “Luka has never told anyone to cut somebody, trade somebody, I need more help. I need this. That’s half the battle right there,” Shammgod said. Contrast that with some of today’s stars, or even Kobe’s occasional high-profile clashes with teammates and management, and Luka’s approach feels almost radical.

His rise hasn’t been confined to the NBA either. At EuroBasket 2025, Doncic averaged 34.7 points per game, becoming only the third player in history to average north of 30 at the event. He also made 17 free throws. That kind of international dominance mirrors Kobe’s run with Team USA, where he became the unquestioned alpha in Beijing 2008. Different stage, same takeover energy.

Luka Doncic’s fearless heart and relentless drive echo Kobe Bryant’s soulful mantra, “Everything negative—pressure, challenges—is all an opportunity for me to rise,” winning LA fans with a fire that feels like Kobe’s Mamba spirit reborn. They embraced Luka as the franchise’s new face, seeing in his game a soulful hunger to carry Kobe’s legacy forward, turning every game into a testament to “the dream is free, but the hustle is sold separately.” 

Luka Doncic, Dallas, and the exit that got “spooky”

The numbers, the aura, the takeover mentality? They all scream Kobe Bryant 2.0, only with a European flair. But Shammgod’s rant wasn’t just about Luka’s greatness. It also peeled back the curtain on Dallas’ unraveling.

Reports surfaced that at the Luka-to-Lakers trade time, the Mavericks had concerns about his physical shape, as rumors of weight gain, questions about stamina, and worry that his body wasn’t matching the workload. After the trade to L.A., though, Doncic showed up noticeably leaner, possibly in the best shape of his life. Videos and interviews confirmed that he dropped over 30 pounds this offseason, tightened up his diet, and took new conditioning seriously.

“Both of y’all know this, like where we come from, like if you handle things the wrong way on the way out, things could get ugly and things could get dark, you know what I’m saying?” he said. “The thing about Dallas was it was just getting spooky times, man. Like it was like… I love Dallas, you know what I’m saying? I’m cool with everybody that’s over there, even though I’m left. But for me, Orlando is just an amazing spot.”

The exit was as telling as the rise. While Shammgod found new beginnings in Orlando, Luka’s exit meant Dallas lost not just a generational talent, but also the leader who, as Shammgod emphasized, never once shifted blame or pulled power moves. Watching Luka leave, Shammgod admitted, was hard because he’d seen first-hand how rare it was to have a superstar who just put his head down and worked.

So here we are. Luka Doncic is 26, already a statistical outlier, an European icon, and the new face of the Lakers. He’s being mentioned in the same breath as Kobe, while his exit from Dallas still lingers like unfinished business. The passion and the history-making numbers are all undeniable.

The only question left? Whether the story ends with the same jewelry count as Kobe. And in Los Angeles, of all places, that question feels less like a “what if” and more like a countdown.