An oddly dedicated Redditor went down the rabbit hole, analyzing Luka Doncic’s performance in the NBA and comparing it to the release cadence of Overwatch 2’s seasons. The data supports him improving on the court when new content drops for the game.
Doncic made headlines earlier this year when he got traded to the Lakers, with fans of the Dallas Mavericks being flabbergasted by the decision. Not even NBA 2K25 allowed the trade, with the game deeming the superstar “untouchable”.
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However, Doncic is known for being phenomenal at another game: Overwatch 2. He’s hit top 500 in the past and is well-known as a top-tier player despite how much time he spends honing his skills as a basketball player.
This led one Redditor to put together a data set about his average performance in relation to new seasons coming out, with him discovering that Doncic does much better when he’s got OW2 to go home to.
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Luka Doncic’s stats are directly tied to Overwatch 2 seasons
Traditional sports stars being really good at video games is nothing new, but Doncic’s achievement of being a top 500 player puts him on another level considering just how many people play Blizzard’s hero shooter.
The idea that playing this game could actually make him better on the court sounds like a joke, but there may be some truth to it.
Redditor SuperUnabsorbant put a ton of effort into analyzing the games that Doncic played around when some of Overwatch 2’s Seasons release, and he managed to find a consistent trend.
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Luka Doncic Reddit statsStats pulled from SuperUnabsorbant’s Reddit post
The NBA star saw a significant increase in offensive rebounds and a notable decrease in blocks on average when a new Season released. For some reason, he was much more aggressive about scoring.
Despite being weaker on defense, he sees a big net positive in terms of offensive play and sinking more hoops. Here’s how this Redditor rationalized it:
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“Many of the skills required to be a good Tank player in OW2 mirror the skills required to be a great offensive playmaker. This includes having a frontline mentality and pushing forward to create space for your teammates, leading to more scoring and assisting opportunities. Offensive rebounding in particular requires a unique combination of positioning, opponent awareness and timing that all competitive OW2 players undoubtedly also possess.
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“On the flip side, being a great defender requires timing, strength, and athleticism, which are all skills that can be weakened by the effects of sleep deprivation from an all night OW2 binge. Most importantly, blocking requires patience and discipline to not jump at every pump fake and get fouled. I strongly believe Luka’s drop in blocking performance could be attributed to the effects of going full tilt in OW2 the night before.”
Is there anything really happening here? Does Overwatch 2 really make Luka better (and in some ways worse) at Overwatch 2? Probably not. However, the fact that big content updates for the game do have a statistically proven effect on how he hits the court is hard to ignore.
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