Luka Dončić won't play with Slovenian national team this summer amid custody battle: 'I want to spend time with my daughters'

Luka Dončić won’t be with the Slovenian national team this summer.

Dončić, shortly after the Los Angeles Lakers were knocked out of the playoffs by the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night, announced on Instagram that he wouldn’t be competing with Slovenia in FIBA World Cup qualifying. Instead, Dončić said he will spend as much time as he can with his two daughters amid his custody battle with his former longtime girlfriend.

“I love my daughters more than anything, and they will always come first in my life,” Dončić wrote on Instagram. “As I continue working toward joint custody of my daughters, I have been forced to make a difficult decision between traveling and playing for the Slovenian national team and being with my daughters this summer. Unfortunately, it has been made extremely difficult for me to see them over the past eight months.

“I have given everything to representing Slovenia and I am disappointed that I will not be able to play for my country this summer. But right now, my daughters and my responsibilities as a father are my priority.”

Dončić revealed in March that he had separated from his fiancée, Anamaria Goltez. The two had been dating since 2016, and he first proposed to her in July 2023. They welcomed their first daughter later that year, and the couple’s second child was born in December in Slovenia.

Sources confirmed to Yahoo Sports that Dončić is in a custody battle over their two daughters, which started after Goltez filed a petition seeking child support and other fees after their separation. Dončić took time away from the Lakers briefly to be in Slovenia for the birth of his second daughter, but there was reportedly an incident in the hospital and police were called. No charges were filed and Dončić left peacefully and flew back to the United States that same day. As of mid-March, that was the last time he had seen Goltez or either of his daughters.