For Slovenian sports commentator Luka Stucin, the past 24 hours have been a mad dash to make it to Dallas in time for the Luka Doncic and the Mavs’ Game 3 tip-off.
“It was a roller coaster, actually, the last few days,” said Stucin, who is editor-in-chief of the television network Arena Sport Slovenija.
His visa was late, arriving in the mail just a day before the team will face the Celtics at the American Airlines Center on Wednesday. Stucin expects to arrive in Texas just five hours before the game begins and he starts calling the game for his audience back home. But to see Slovenian basketball legend Luka Doncic’s first time in the NBA finals, it’s worth the journey.
“It’s quite hectic. It’s quite exhausting,” Stucin said. “But I think it’s worth it because I think that the Slovenian folks want that and they deserve it.”
Stucin wasn’t the only Slovenian on his last-minute flight with his sights set for Dallas. Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob flew to Texas on Wednesday for Game 3, too. On Instagram, the politician wrote, “All my life I dreamed of watching the NBA Finals and today I’m going to cheer for Luka in Dallas.”
Doncic’s ascension to lead the Mavericks to the Finals has been an enormous point of pride for Slovenians all over the world. From Slovenes traveling to Texas for Game 3 to fans watching games in the middle of the night in Ljubljana, the small Eastern European nation has its eyes on Dallas.
Arena Sport’s broadcast will be a part of a special night show, as the game starts at 2:30 a.m. in Slovenia’s time zone. But that doesn’t mean no one will be watching, Stucin said.
While Dallas sports fans have been kept on their toes with an impressive playoff run from the Mavericks, Slovenian fans are working against a seven-hour time difference to support Doncic’s NBA dominance.
TV ratings for Arena Sports have been “remarkably good,” Stucin said, even though the games take place in the middle of the night. If the Mavs take Game 3, he expects ratings to go “through the roof.”
Andraz Zalar, a former Mavericks marketing intern from Slovenia, said that Slovenian NBA players like Luka Doncic and Goran Dragic have popularized the sport in the small country. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex has a population roughly four times the size of Slovenia’s.
“Luka just kind of took Slovenia out into the world,” Zalar said. “He really is a true ambassador of the country.”
Some bars have received a special permit in Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital and Doncic’s hometown, to open late for the games, and the University of Ljubljana’s campus has hosted watch parties.
“The hype back in Slovenia is crazy,” Zalar said. “Since mid-April I’ve been awake basically every other night to watch the game. It’s pretty exhausting but I guess this year it was worth it.”
Fans go to sleep early so they can have energy for tip-off at 2 or 3 a.m. Some have gotten used to the schedule throughout the playoffs.
“I wake up every day now at 3 a.m. because I don’t know how to sleep,” said Andraz’s brother Zan Zalar, who is a student in Ljubljana.
At school or work, Zan said people have come to recognize sleepy faces after games, and will ask “So you also watched Luka last night?”
Die-hard fans have made the trip to Texas to support Luka Doncic’s rise. Andraz Zalar, who now works in Austria, came to Dallas this week to catch some of the hype surrounding the finals.
While he did not get his hands on tickets for Game 3, Andraz Zalar still managed to get to the AAC to join the watch party for Game 1. Game 3 ticket prices start over $650, and the cost has made it difficult for some fans to attend in person.
Rok Hladnik, CEO of a digital advertising agency based in Slovenia, surprised his dad with tickets to Game 3 and 4. He said it cost about $9,000 for him, his dad and his brother to travel to Dallas from Slovenia, without the cost of the tickets themselves, which he would not disclose.
Hladnik remembers waking up early as a kid to watch NBA games, and has also gotten up in the middle of the night for the last few months to watch the Mavs. Sasa Doncic, Luka’s father, was on the same flight to Dallas as the Hladniks.
“Luka needed some help, and we came over to give him help,” Hladnik said. The Mavs are down 2-0 after Game 2.
For Arena Sports, Stucin said it will cost the network around $65,000 to send three people to Dallas. This doesn’t include the cost of tickets, since the team has media credentials to cover the game. Because of the high travel costs, Arena Sports waited until Game 3 and 4 to travel to the U.S., but they will stay in the country as long as the Mavericks are in the finals.
“It’s quite expensive, especially for [the] small market that Slovenia is,” Stucin said.
Tilen Lamut is another Slovenian commentator for Arena Sports. He sees Doncic as “the face of the finals,” and thinks the price is worth it.
“I think it’s important to bring the stories and everything around the game to [the] Slovenian audience, also from a different perspective,” Lamut said. “It’s tough to bring that money back. But for us, it was a no-brainer.”
Lamut spoke with Doncic one on one on Tuesday about preparations for Games 3 and 4 and what the finals mean for him.
“[Luka Doncic] was smiling a lot [and was in a] very good mood,” Lamut said. “If I would have to judge from that, I wouldn’t say they’re down 2-nothing.”
Dallasites with Slovenian ties have also watched Luka Doncic’s rise with pride. Janice Zabukovec Davis, a Dallas attorney at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, grew up in a Slovenian community in the Chicago area and has Slovenian heritage.
Davis doesn’t know of a robust Slovenian community in Dallas, but she has hosted a delegation of Slovenian businesses in the city. Davis and Slovenian visitors have brought flags and scarves to the AAC to show their pride in Doncic, including at “I Feel Slovenia” nights at the center. Davis said Doncic has come to speak to Slovenian fans after games in the past.
“Whether you’re Slovenian or not, I think everybody just loves Luka,” Davis said. “I call it Luka love.”
For Slovenians near and far, the path to the finals has been tiring, memorable and exciting. Although Stucin’s race to the AAC to call the game for Slovenians back home was down to the wire, he still hopes to find time for some Texas ribs and a beer or two, and maybe catch up on some sleep on the plane. But fans back home will be wide awake with him on Wednesday.
“I can sleep after the finals,” Stucin said. “I don’t care.”
