Within the perspective of his NBA career, what Dončić achieved in Saturday’s 117-116 series-clinching win over the Oklahoma City Thunder was his second Western Conference Finals berth in three years. It was another ascension that overcame injury-imposed limitations and series deficits to best another No. 1 seed, just like the Dallas Mavericks did two years ago to reach Dončić’s first conference finals. Since arriving in basketball’s finest league, his upward climb has been steady, with some setbacks in between.

But consider how Dončić must view the time dilation of his life, one which began professionally at 13 and has constantly resulted in what he felt after Saturday’s win. He won youth tournaments at 13 before signing with Real Madrid and then won more of them after joining Europe’s prestige club. He debuted for the senior team at age 16 and starred while winning Europe’s highest club honor two years later. In between, he helped his country of 2.1 million people win the highest possible intercontinental honor. He was somehow drafted only third in 2018 but then won Rookie of the Year.

Those next three years, ones where Dončić’s brilliance wasn’t enough to move Dallas past the first round, must have felt blurred. He’s spent an entire lifetime scaling increasingly higher heights. His Wikipedia sidebar that lists his “career highlights and awards” has 28 bullet points.

Now, here he is, ascending again. It’s enough continued success for him to forget how old he even is.

“I’m 32,” Kyrie Irving said in the superstar duo’s joint postgame news conference after Saturday’s win. “He’s a young 25, 26.”

Next to him, the 25-year-old Dončić confidently corrected him, saying, “I’m 24,” before furling his brows in hesitation.

“He’s still growing,” Irving said.

“No, 25,” said Dončić, his exhausted brain finally recalling his correct age.

Dončić’s return to the conference finals comes with the best NBA team he’s ever played on. Asked before Game 6 to compare this Dallas team’s defensive acumen to the one he took to the third round in 2022, Jason Kidd confidently chose his current team. Now, there’s an even more mature version of Dončić, with another co-star, Irving, who has claim to one of the past decade’s most iconic postseason shots.

All those accolades, all that success, doesn’t prevent Dončić from appreciating the moment. “Today, I think we should all enjoy (it), because this was, I would say, a really hard series,” he said.

But having experienced so much, do forgive him if his own years blend together.

It must be expressed how much it took for the Mavericks, even with Dončić’s 29-point triple-double, to close out this series with their Game 6 victory. Dallas trailed by 16 points after two quarters. “We said at halftime that we’re not going back to (Oklahoma City),” Dončić said.

What turned in the second half was a stifling zone defense and complete trust in Dereck Lively II, a rookie center who finished this series plus-71 when on the floor in a series where the overall score was 636 points apiece.

“What I love about him is his voice (because) he’s one that’s going to talk,”  Kidd said of Lively. “He’s got to be fun to play with, because he’s fun to coach.”

In Game 6, Lively played more than 18 minutes in the second half. Against Oklahoma City’s five-out offense, the spry rookie center was the right choice over midseason-acquisition-turned-starter Daniel Gafford. In the final minutes, Dallas went ahead for good on an Irving pull-up 3 and a P.J. Washington triple.

“Being down 17 in a closeout game isn’t a position you wanna be in,” Irving said. “It was fun once the game ended.”

Dallas was in position to acquire Lively thanks to last season’s catastrophe, one in which Dallas missed the postseason entirely and tanked its final two games to retain its first-round draft pick. Now, with another conference finals visit secured, Dončić can look back at that disastrous season without shame.

“I’m just glad the Mavs drafted him,” Dončić said afterwards.

And Dončić, two years after his first conference finals appearance, is glad Dallas has continued to build around him in the ways that he wants.

Lively is a 20-year-old rookie. Gafford is 25. Washington, who hit two game-sealing free throws after being fouled on a closing-seconds 3-pointer, was another trade deadline acquisition who is also 25. Only two rotation players, Irving and Tim Hardaway Jr., are older than 28. (Another, 32-year-old Maxi Kleber, could return in the conference finals after a shoulder sprain suffered in the first round.) While Irving’s age looms at some point for the team’s future, it’s not an immediate question. The only significant player not under contract is Derrick Jones Jr., who would like to return, both he and his agent told The Athletic, if Dallas can figure out how to pay him more than the league minimum contract at which he was signed.

Dallas is much more than Dončić, exemplified by last season’s calamitous ending and this postseason run. But Dallas is also Dončić, a generational superstar whose accomplishments are so numerous that the years blend together.

“Tonight’s game wasn’t Luka or (Kyrie) making the game-winner, but the trust of Luka,” Kidd said. “He trusted P.J. (on the game-winning shot).”

Had Dončić taken the potentially game-winning attempt, Kidd would have been fine with it.

“Make or miss, we would have said that was a good shot,” he said.

But what Dončić did instead was what he’s always done: The right play, a pass, to an open shooter.

With this team around him, Dončić surely must find that easier. Two seasons ago, Dončić had a team he also trusted. It was one that carried him at times, such as when he missed the postseason’s first three games with a calf sprain and reentered with his team up 2-1. Emerging co-star Jalen Brunson left for New York after that summer. The team’s aging veterans dispersed shortly after through various trades.

All that has led to the team he has now. One he believes in, and one he should view as a squad he will play with for several more years to come.

“(I have) insane confidence in this team,” he said in his interview walking off the court. “This team is special.”

The test Dallas will face in the conference finals — still to be determined with Sunday’s Game 7 between the Denver Nuggets and the Minnesota Timberwolves — will be difficult in different ways than that of this series. It’s far from certain that Dončić, despite his familiarity with success, will even reach the NBA Finals this season. This team, formed just months ago, might not be ready quite yet.

“The hardest thing to do in professional sports (is) to win a championship,” Kidd said. “Because there’s only one.”

It’s no surprise that Dončić’s here. Time and time again throughout his basketball-centric existence, he has turned exceptionality into what he could view as mundanity. That he still finds a way to celebrate each moment is a testament to joy he sometimes still has to recall from this sport.

“I’m old,” Dončić protested in his postgame press conference.

Perhaps that’s how he has interpreted his own experiences. But now, at least, he has the teammates with which he’s ready to truly grow old.