Apparently, all you have to do to get professional NBA players to let down their stoic “game faces” is to gift them each a sweet e-bike.
When Dallas Mavericks point guard and team captain Luka Dončić surprised his teammates and team staff with an e-bike for Christmas, their reactions were priceless.
Dončić, who has topped 10,000 career points this season, is known for treating his teammates to gifts that move at the end of the year - literally; last year, he gifted everyone a segway scooter.
An e-bike, especially the one Dončić gifted this year, is way cooler, in our professional opinion.
The bike model Dončić provided to his team is not your average e-bike. It is the Mercedes N+ Rallye Edition e-bike, which retails for $7,500 and is not yet available to the general public (but is predicted to be in spring 2024).
The N+ brand exists in collaboration with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team and its design is as slick as a F1 car.
The N+ e-bikes come in two options: the $7,500 Rallye Edition and the $5,500 Track Edition.
The three differentiators between the bikes are the drivetrain, the fork and the tires. The Rallye uses a Pinion C1.9 gearbox with electric Smart.Shift and a Gates carbon belt drive - similar to the Tenways CGO600 Pro we reviewed this year - while the Track has a Shimano nine-speed drivetrain with a chain drive.
The fork of the Rallye is an 80mm suspension fork. The fork of the Track is rigid and made of 6061 aluminum alloy.
The Rallye comes with Pirelli Scorpion eMTB 27.5x2.6” tires while the Track comes with Pirelli Angel Urban GT 27.5x2.125” tires
Otherwise, both bikes boast a 750W motor and a 48V, 10Ah battery, with the option to add a secondary seatpost battery of 48V and 5Ah, a 5.5” LCD display screen so you can keep track of all your ride metrics, one-piece flat handlebars, andTektro hydraulic disc brakes. The bikes will be available in frame sizes of small, medium and large.
Mavericks players and staff received the e-bikes after their 144-119 win against the San Antonio Spurs on December 23.
Mavericks guard Dante Exum smiled as he said in the post-game press conference that the team could hardly wait to check out their new two-wheeled rides.
“I think [the e-bikes] are a great gift,” Exum said. “The meeting we had [post-game] was quite short because we were all excited about the bikes.”
Small forward Tim Hardaway Jr. opted to test his Rallye out right away and could be seen riding the halls of the arena well after post-game necessities were complete.
Between last year’s segways and 2023’s Mercedes N+ e-bikes, Dončić will have to get creative next holiday season to even have a chance at outdoing his previous gifts.
