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Vlade Divac passed on Luka Doncic in the 2018 NBA draft.

Former Sacramento Kings general manager Vlade Divac explained his decision to pass on Luka Doncic in the 2018 NBA draft.

With the first overall pick in 2018, the Phoenix Suns took Deandre Ayton out of Arizona. The Kings had the second pick, but instead of taking Doncic, they took Marvin Bagley III out of Duke. The Atlanta Hawks then took Doncic with the third pick, but they traded him to the Dallas Mavericks for the fifth pick, Trae Young, plus a 2019 first-round pick. The Hawks ended up taking Cam Reddish with that extra pick the next year.

The decision to take Bagley instead of Doncic has long been panned as one of the reasons why Divac’s career as an NBA executive failed. While Bagley turned out to be a decent rotational big, Doncic ended up being a superstar and one of the best basketball players in the world. There is no doubt the decision to take Bagley and pass on Doncic was a mistake, and one that Divac regrets.

Vlade Divac Regrets Passing on Luka Doncic

In an interview on Byron Scott’s Fast Break podcast, Divac was candid about his decision to take Bagley instead of Doncic. Here’s how the exchange went down (via HoopsHype).

Byron Scott: I want to go back when you were the GM in Sacramento. I don’t remember the year, but you had a chance to get Luka Doncic and you passed on him. Do you want to talk about that? Because you had drafted European players before.

Vlade Divac: I actually went to Madrid to talk to Luka, a year before the draft. So, he was definitely top on the list. But, obviously, it looks like I made mistake. Luka is an unbelievable talent, one of the top players in the league. All of my assistants told me that he can play small forward, and I said no, no, Luka is a point guard. Luka is a coach on the floor. And I felt that if I get Luka, I would have to trade De’Aaron Fox, and I already got a relationship with Fox, and I see he’s a perfect fit for us, a small market team, and Luka was a big market player.

Sacramento Kings Missed Out on a Generational Talent

While the Kings did have De’Aaron Fox running point guard in Sacramento already, they could have found a way to fit Doncic onto their team. In fact, the two could have combined to be one of the most-deadly backcourts in the NBA, and potentially could have changed the fortune of the team around.

Instead, the Kings drafted Bagley, who ended up playing 3.5 years for the team before being dealt to the Detroit Pistons in a multi-team trade. Since then, he has bounced around four other teams, while coincidentally finding his home in Dallas this season, the team where Doncic starred for 7.5 years before his shocking trade to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2025. As for Fox, he demanded a trade out of Sacramento and is currently starring for the San Antonio Spurs. The Kings, meanwhile, are using aging veterans like Russell Westbrook and DeMar DeRozan in their backcourt these days, as the team struggles to find its identity in the loaded Western Conference.