Luka Dončić helped Slovenia win the 2017 FIBA EuroBasket championship before he joined the Dallas Mavericks. Photo: Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images
Luka Dončić is a hometown hero at his alma mater in Slovenia, where he showed promise at an early age.
The big picture: Dončić's photo hangs inside Miran Jarc primary school in the Slovenian Alps with a quote attributed to him: "I never dreamed of success. I worked for it."
His teachers remember him, and the students aspire to be like him, per a new AP story on the 25-year-old's legacy.
State of play: Dončić played for Miran Jarc and a youth league while in primary school. He left Slovenia after the seventh grade to play for the youth academy of Real Madrid in Spain.
Atlanta drafted him as the third overall pick in 2018 and traded him to Dallas.
The intrigue: "Every single pupil at this school knows Luka Dončić went to our school and now is a world-famous basketball star," Miran Janc ninth-grader Aleksandar Drobnjak told the AP.
Flashback: Dončić's potential was apparent in the first grade, when he had to compete with athletes older than him for a more even playing field.
He was shorter than his older peers, so he focused on making shots from a distance to avoid getting caught up in the paint. That early training likely inspired the fadeaways that he's known for in the NBA.
What they're saying: "Talent is important, but when you grow up and play with adults, talent is not enough. You must work hard, and he was a hard worker in our school already," Uros Rozman, one of Dončić's former gym teachers, told AP.
What's next: Game 3 of the NBA Finals is at 7:30pm at the American Airlines Center.
Dončić scored over 30 points in the first two games, but Dallas couldn't keep up with Boston. The Celtics lead the series 2-0.
