This Former-Model Mom Stole the Show, And Other News from the NBA Draft

There were a lot of stars in the house at Thursday night’s NBA draft, including basketball legends and dozens of young men who hope to one day achieve that status. 

But for a certain subset of viewers, no star was bigger than Mirjam Poterbin, mother of Luka Doncic. When the 19-year-old Slovenian phenom was picked by the Hawks, only later to be flipped to the Mavs, cameras showed him hugging a comely young woman. It was his mom.

Plenty viewers took notice of Poterbin, including Warriors forward Andre Iguodala, who sent this tweet right after Doncic was picked. 

Poterbin is a former model and an athlete in her own right. She ran hurdles, according to SLAM. She’s also very active on Instagram. 

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Some basketball fans, most notably those in Atlanta, were focused on Doncic himself. Hawks fans took to social media to rip the team for trading away the 6’8″ ball handler who has already proven himself in Europe. In exchange, they picked up Trae Young, a fantastic shooter who’s drawn comparisons to Steph Curry. But these Hawks fans clearly preferred one to the other. 

https://twitter.com/XiiomaraLA/status/1009950276118241280

The other big stories on draft night included top pick DeAndre Ayton getting involved in his first NBA beef on his first night as a member of the league. After the Suns picked the Bahamian big man, Sixers star Joel Embiid, to whom Ayton has drawn comparisons, said the two offensively skilled centers are actually not so similar.

Another fun story involves a player who was not taken in the draft. That would be LiAngelo Ball, son of Lavar Ball and brother of Lonzo Ball. It’s little surprise, really. Ball has never been much of an NBA prospect and reports from his pre-draft workouts confirmed what most basketball people already know: He’s not athletic enough or big enough to cut in the NBA. 

At least he has fans though.