He Sees Without Eyes… The Still Head of Luka Doncic

Let me get this straight… when we speak of court vision, we suggest something that relates to physical sight, an ability to see where everyone is and make the right decision based on their movements. This is the opposite of reality, and when we watch the head of Luka Doncic instead of the eyes, we understand.

When you watch Luka play for the first few times, focus on only him in closeup, you think that you’re seeing a selfish player. He gets the ball, and all of his attention is on the basket and the defender between him and it. When he flips the ball to a cutter, or rifles it to a teammate in the corner, you might believe that it was a last resort, a second choice because he couldn’t get off a shot. You believe that because his focus never wavered, he never looked around at his teammates and the defense, only at the basket.

Then you watch some more, and suddenly you realize. Luka doesn’t look simply because he doesn’t need to. He already sees, or more to the point, he has already seen.

The tip-off for a player with truly great court vision, a generational player such as Doncic, is that they “see” the court with their minds, not their eyes. Their heads are still, and their focus on the one thing that they need to control — their defender. They have already computed the locations of their teammates; they already feel the coming presence of the other defenders. To actually look at any of them, to gain the security of that confirmation, would defeat their purpose through disclosure of their intent.

As a great player matures, his mind recognizes more and more scenarios, anticipates more alternatives, and recognizes more opportunities to create or define the responses by the defense before them. Luka, at barely 21 years of age, has the ability to interpret and predict that very good player a decade older never attain. His coach, Larry Carlisle, has seen this before, and labels it appropriately, calling Luka a “savant”, a reference to a transcendent mental ability.

“He knows where everybody is, not only on offense but for defense (too),” Carlisle said. “That’s the sign of a savant type guy. I mean, I’ve played with Larry Bird, he could see everything like that. I had the privilege of coaching Jason Kidd, he could see everything like that. Luka’s in that same mold.”

So, when we look at Luka, we see that still head… the same lack of a tell that the defenders must cope with. Luka is looking at the defender between him and the basket only because that is the remaining variable to calculate, the random aspect that will refine his almost infinite choices. Defender balanced to his left hand; an attack that forward lean, but also know that his arm is moving down, providing an opening for the pass. Defender cheating, preparing for the double; know the timing of the coming support and the opening channel to the corner for the ball. He already knows that Curry is in that corner, he already knows that Porzingas is drifting to the foul line. He has no need to see them, just the ones that are in his way.

Luka never seems to rush, always seems to be gliding into position, easing across the perimeter before barreling into the paint. He has no need to rush. In many ways, he already knows where he is going, and what he wants the defender to do… he is simply getting there at the right time, the time of his choosing, rather than the fastest time. It’s already in motion, and the defender can’t play at maximum speed or intensity because that won’t match Doncic’s pace. The defender can’t cheat, because he can’t read Doncic’s mind. It’s about control, and Luka is already calling the shots.

Luka was playing a man’s game in Europe when he was barely a teen. That surely plays a part in his mind’s ability to process… but thousands of players have seen more games than he has, without ever approaching his vision. There is special wiring in his brain, a slow-motion camera that is always on, always showing the picture of the coming seconds, not the past. It is the one thing in the world that a player cannot work his way into having, that a player cannot train up to, and Luka has been blessed with it.

What will follow in his career is up to him. He needs more work, particularly on his defense (although he is notably improving there), and his consistency in shooting from the arc. He must improve his free throws because as he becomes an even more unstoppable force, he’ll be spending far more of the late minutes in a game there. He can improve, even substantially in some ways, and that isn’t good news for the rest of the league.

But watch his head and the way that it doesn’t swivel around searching for his teammates, for the coming defenders. Watch his stillness, his pace, his timing, and appreciate this: Luka is in control, not the other guys, not the clock, and not the game. It has always been this way for the greats, their ability to exert control, to make irrelevant everything and everyone, and the 21-year-old Luka has that rare and precious gift.

We’re just lucky enough to have him.