Mirjam Poterbin is a Slovenian former model, television host, and entrepreneur who is best known internationally as the mother of NBA superstar Luka Dončić. Long before her son became one of basketball’s most recognizable names, she had already built her own public profile in Slovenia through beauty pageants, modeling work, and national television. Today, readers search for her because she has been a constant, visible presence throughout Luka’s journey — from his childhood in Ljubljana to Real Madrid’s youth academy, the Dallas Mavericks, and now the Los Angeles Lakers — and because her story blends single motherhood, business ownership, personal sacrifice, and even a widely publicized trademark dispute with her own son that was ultimately resolved.
Quick Bio
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Mirjam Poterbin |
| Known As | Luka Dončić’s mother |
| Profession | Former model, TV host, beautician, entrepreneur |
| Nationality | Slovenian |
| Birthplace | Slovenia (raised in Ljubljana) |
| Birth Year | Reported as 1974 (April 7); some outlets cite 1976 |
| Education | Secondary school for hospitality and tourism, Ljubljana (as reported) |
| Parents | Milena Poterbin (mother), Anton Poterbin (father) |
| Ex-Husband | Saša Dončić (divorced 2008) |
| Children | Luka Dončić (only child, born February 28, 1999) |
| Grandchildren | Gabriela Dončić and Olivia Dončić |
| Known For | Miss Slovenia 1993 pageant, hosting Slovenia’s Wheel of Fortune, salon “MIRJAM” |
| Relationship to Luka Dončić | Mother, former off-court business manager |
| Current Residence | Los Angeles, United States (previously Dallas) |
| Public Presence | Instagram (@mirjampoterbin, 71K+ followers), Threads |
| Current Status | Single; active in modeling and business ventures |
Who Is Mirjam Poterbin?
Mirjam Poterbin is a Slovenian public figure whose life has unfolded in two distinct chapters: first as a young model and television personality in 1990s Slovenia, and later as the devoted mother and one-time business manager of Luka Dončić, one of the most gifted basketball players of his generation. Born in Slovenia and raised in Ljubljana, she is the daughter of Milena Poterbin, with whom she later ran a beauty salon, and Anton Poterbin, about whom very little has been publicly disclosed. Reports describe her as one of five children in a close-knit family, though the names of her siblings have never been made public. After her marriage to professional basketball player Saša Dončić ended in 2008, she raised Luka largely on her own, and her decisions during those years — from letting a thirteen-year-old boy move to Madrid to relocating across continents herself — shaped the career that basketball fans around the world now follow. American audiences first noticed her on the night of the 2018 NBA Draft, when cameras caught her embracing her son and her appearance quickly went viral, turning a Slovenian businesswoman into an unexpected figure of NBA pop culture.
Background in Modeling and Television
Mirjam Poterbin’s own career in the spotlight began well before her son was born, starting with modeling and dance work in Slovenia during the early 1990s. In 1993, at around nineteen years of age, she entered the Miss Slovenia pageant, and although she did not take the national crown, the exposure opened doors across Slovenian media and advertising. She went on to work as a brand ambassador and appeared in magazines, and she later hosted the Slovenian version of Wheel of Fortune, known locally as Kolo sreče, which made her a familiar face on national television. As her modeling years wound down, she moved into business, opening a hair and skin beauty salon together with her mother Milena Poterbin — a venture that gave her both an income and, crucially, control over her own schedule. She has said in Slovenian media that owning the salon allowed her to book clients only while Luka was at kindergarten or school so that mother and son could spend the rest of their time together, a detail that reveals how early her professional choices began orbiting around her child. In recent years she has returned to modeling in a limited capacity and remains active as an entrepreneur, with her social media also linked to ventures such as her salon brand and a yachting business.
Marriage and Divorce with Saša Dončić
Mirjam Poterbin was married to Saša Dončić, a Slovenian professional basketball player who spent his playing career, which ran from 1993 to 2010, mostly with clubs in Slovenia alongside shorter stints in Serbia and France, winning Slovenian league titles and multiple Slovenian Cups along the way. The exact date of their wedding has never been publicly confirmed, and details about how the model and the basketball player first met remain undisclosed, but their son Luka arrived on February 28, 1999, in Ljubljana. The marriage ended in divorce in 2008, when Luka was nine years old, and while the couple never publicly detailed the reasons, Mirjam was granted custody and legal guardianship of their son. Saša continued his basketball life after retirement, moving into coaching and eventually being named director of sport for the Slovenian Basketball Federation in 2024, and he later entered a relationship with Nikolina Dragičević, with whom he has a daughter, Tijana Dončić, Luka’s younger half-sister. Despite the separation, both parents remained invested in Luka’s development, though it was Mirjam who managed the day-to-day realities of raising a future superstar, and Saša himself has spoken candidly in later years about his regrets, including his absence from the 2018 NBA Draft.
Parenthood and Family Life
Raising Luka Dončić as a single mother after 2008 became the defining project of Mirjam Poterbin’s life, and by every public account she approached it with a mix of warmth and firm structure. She has described young Luka as endlessly energetic — a boy who could not sit still for a minute — and she famously used basketball itself as leverage for discipline, telling him he could go to practice only after cleaning his room, knowing he would always comply because nothing mattered more to him than the game. Interestingly, she has also said she never imagined he would reach the NBA; her stated priority was simply his happiness, and she understood early that basketball and happiness were inseparable for her son. That family foundation extended beyond mother and child: Luka’s grandmother Milena Poterbin has been a regular presence at his games, his great-grandmother back in Slovenia reportedly took up watching basketball on television just to follow him, and his godfather Radoslav Nesterović — a Slovenian who played twelve NBA seasons and won a championship with the San Antonio Spurs in 2005 — provided a living example of what a Slovenian player could achieve in America. Today Mirjam’s family role has expanded once more, as she proudly identifies on social media as a grandmother of two, Gabriela Dončić and Olivia Dončić, Luka’s daughters with his former fiancée Anamaria Goltes, a Slovenian fitness coach whom Luka met as a child on a Croatian beach and from whom he was reported to have separated in 2025.
Supporting Through Luka’s Move to Real Madrid
The hardest test of Mirjam Poterbin’s parenting came in 2012, when a thirteen-year-old Luka Dončić received the opportunity to sign a five-year contract with Real Madrid and move to Spain alone. She has admitted she was frightened and initially urged him to think it over, but she has recalled that when Luka looked her in the eyes and said he wanted to try, she knew she had to let him go. What followed were three years she has openly described as “crazy hard”: Luka lived in a residence with other young players in Madrid while she remained in Slovenia running her salon, flying out every single weekend to see him and, by her own admission, crying through much of that period. When it became clear the arrangement was unsustainable emotionally, she made the decisive move — giving up her established life and business in Slovenia to relocate to Madrid and be near her son, even though they did not live together and she initially knew no one in the city. Her sacrifice was vindicated on the court: Luka debuted for Real Madrid’s senior team at sixteen years, two months and two days old, the youngest player ever to do so at that time, and by 2018 he had conquered European basketball and was ready for the NBA, where the Atlanta Hawks selected him third overall before trading his rights to the Dallas Mavericks on a draft night his mother attended at his side.
Life After the 2022 Trademark Dispute
The most turbulent public chapter in the relationship between Mirjam Poterbin and Luka Dončić arrived in 2022, when mother and son found themselves on opposite sides of a legal filing over the trademark “LUKA DONCIC 7,” which Luka had given his mother written consent to register back in 2018, during the years she managed his off-court business affairs. When Luka later sought to register a new mark reflecting his number 77 and to take control of his own branding, the United States Patent and Trademark Office found the proposed mark too similar to the one his mother held, and in September 2022 he filed a petition to cancel her registration, arguing that she was not using it commercially in the United States. Poterbin responded with a motion to dismiss, pointing to the written consent he had signed, while publicly insisting through a statement to Slovenian television that outside people seeking control over Luka’s life were driving the conflict and that she would always stand behind protecting her son. The standoff ended quietly and quickly: in December 2022, Luka withdrew his petition with prejudice, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board closed the case, and by early 2023 both had visibly moved past the episode. Since then, their bond has appeared fully restored — when Luka was stunningly traded from the Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers in February 2025, Mirjam followed him west, and within weeks she was courtside in a number 77 Lakers jersey, posting celebratory photos as her son dropped a triple-double on his former team.
Career Highlights and Public Recognition
While Mirjam Poterbin’s fame today flows largely through her son, her own résumé stands on its own within Slovenian public life: a 1993 Miss Slovenia contestant, a working model and dancer, the host of a nationally broadcast game show, and a long-running salon owner whose business she built with her mother. Her second act as a public figure began in June 2018, when her emotional draft-night appearance beside Luka went viral across American social media and introduced her to millions of NBA fans overnight. That visibility translated into renewed professional opportunities, including modeling work reported for a clinic and a handbag brand, and she has been associated with a consumer goods venture connected to Luka’s branding as well as promotional work in the yachting industry. On Instagram, where she has more than 71,000 followers, she curates a feed centered on family pride — game photos, milestones, and tributes to her granddaughters — rather than conventional influencer content, and sports media outlets regularly cover her courtside appearances, most notably her back-to-back Lakers jersey posts around Luka’s twenty-sixth birthday in February 2025. Various celebrity websites publish estimates of her net worth, but no figure has ever been confirmed by a reliable primary source, so any specific number should be treated as unverified speculation.
Why People Search for Mirjam Poterbin
Search interest in Mirjam Poterbin spikes for a handful of recurring reasons, and understanding them explains her unusual place in sports culture. Many fans first look her up after seeing her at games or in viral clips, curious about the woman who raised a generational talent largely on her own; others arrive through the 2022 trademark story, wanting to know whether the mother and son ever reconciled (they did, within months); and a steady stream of searches concerns her own background — her pageant history, her television career, her age, and her relationship with Luka’s father Saša Dončić. Her move alongside Luka through three basketball cities — Madrid, Dallas, and now Los Angeles — keeps her in headlines whenever her son’s career takes a dramatic turn, as it did with the shock trade to the Lakers in 2025. In an NBA landscape where players’ parents increasingly become public figures in their own right, Poterbin stands out because she had a media career before her son was even born, which gives her story a depth that most “NBA mom” profiles lack.
Privacy, Accuracy and Public Information
Any responsible profile of Mirjam Poterbin has to acknowledge the limits of what is publicly known, because significant details of her life have simply never been disclosed. Her exact birth year is inconsistently reported — most sources, including Wikidata drawing on Slovenian Wikipedia, cite 1974, while several others state 1976 — and this article notes both rather than presenting either as settled fact. The identity and life details of her father, Anton Poterbin, remain almost entirely private, the names of her reported siblings have never been published, the date and circumstances of her wedding to Saša Dončić are unconfirmed, and the specific reasons for their 2008 divorce were never officially stated by either party. Financial figures circulating online, including net worth estimates, come from celebrity aggregator sites rather than verified filings and should not be treated as established fact. Everything else presented here — her pageant participation, television hosting, salon ownership, custody of Luka, the Madrid years, the trademark case and its December 2022 resolution, and her relocation to Los Angeles — is drawn from consistent reporting across sports journalism, interviews she has given, and public legal records.
Also read: Charles Antetokounmpo — Father of Giannis and the Legacy Behind the Greek Freak
FAQs
Who is Mirjam Poterbin?
Mirjam Poterbin is a Slovenian former model, television host, and salon owner, internationally known as the mother of NBA superstar Luka Dončić, whose career she supported and managed.
Is Mirjam Poterbin still married to Saša Dončić?
No. Mirjam Poterbin and Saša Dončić divorced in 2008, when Luka was nine years old. She received custody of Luka and is currently reported to be single.
What was the lawsuit between Luka Dončić and his mother?
In 2022, Luka petitioned to cancel the “LUKA DONCIC 7” trademark his mother held with his 2018 consent. He withdrew the petition in December 2022, ending the dispute.
Does Mirjam Poterbin have other children?
No. Luka Dončić is Mirjam Poterbin’s only child. However, Luka has a younger half-sister, Tijana Dončić, from his father Saša’s later relationship with Nikolina Dragičević.
Where does Mirjam Poterbin live now?
Mirjam Poterbin lives in Los Angeles, United States, having relocated after Luka Dončić’s February 2025 trade from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers.
How many grandchildren does Mirjam Poterbin have?
Mirjam Poterbin has two granddaughters, Gabriela Dončić and Olivia Dončić, Luka’s daughters with Anamaria Goltes, and she proudly features them in her social media presence.
Mirjam Poterbin’s story is ultimately about the quiet architecture behind extraordinary success: a woman who traded her own spotlight for weekend flights to Madrid, who built a business specifically so she could be present for her son, and who weathered even a public legal conflict with him without letting it define their bond. From Miss Slovenia contestant to Wheel of Fortune host, from Ljubljana salon owner to a fixture in the stands at Lakers games, she has reinvented herself repeatedly while keeping one constant at the center of every decision — and as Luka Dončić continues writing his chapter in NBA history, the mother who let a thirteen-year-old chase a dream across borders remains one of the most compelling supporting figures in modern basketball.