There are several reasons the Dallas Mavericks decided to trade Luka Doncic, however chief amongst them seems to be ridiculous concern over one thing petty. One of many large sticking factors for Mavs GM Nico Harrison was Doncic’s love of beer and smoking hookah, which he believed had been main character considerations.
This from a new report by The Athletic, which particulars the choices behind Dallas buying and selling Luka and their motivations behind it.
“They point out the social habits that The Athletic has reported on — resembling a style for beer and hookah — which have been a degree of concern for NBA sorts since he was a 19-year-old star for Real Madrid who was getting into the draft.”
Doncic’s love of beer and hookah, paired with a basic sense of “laziness” surrounding him resulted within the Mavericks deciding to commerce away their greatest participant, their brightest future star, all out of concern he didn’t have the “Mamba Mentality” that Harrison honored in gamers.
Couched inside this revelation is a really actual dialogue available in regards to the notion and expectations of athletes. Certain, we are able to put gamers on a pedestal and picture a world the place they by no means drink, by no means smoke, say their prayers, and take their nutritional vitamins — however that’s a fantasy, a fairy story. It holds skilled athletes to a regular no one lives to, particularly these with the wealth to take pleasure in their youth, take pleasure in their lives, and journey the world like nearly no one has.
Level being: If Luka Doncic is ready to drop a triple-double on any given evening, if he can lead a staff to the NBA Finals, if he can turn out to be one among solely 15 gamers in NBA historical past to attain 70 factors in a sport, then who provides a rat’s ass if he’s in public having some beers or smoking a hookah on his personal free time?
It’s exactly the purpose Sam Amick makes in his piece.
“That’s the way it was for the likes of Allen Iverson, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Invoice Walton, and Larry Hen — all elite gamers who had their warts. That checklist is undeniably lengthy, with only a few in a position to meet the type of normal set by Bryant or his idol, Michael Jordan (who had off-court problems with his personal).”
If Nico Harrison was going to clutch his pearls over beer consuming and hookah smoking then he wouldn’t have survived 15 seconds in a corporation within the 70s or 80s. Michael Jordan smoked cigars and gambled on a regular basis, Larry Hen drank a lot in bars he bought into bar fights — and my God, if you wish to even contact on the Showtime Lakers — with Kareem smoking extra grass than a soccer discipline, the quantity of cocaine at staff events, and gamers turning as much as observe so hung over they might hardly dribble a basketball.
No one is saying any of these actions are wholesome, removed from it — however then don’t be so bull-headed as to get all huffy when Luka is out publicly having a number of beers or smoking a hookah with associates. Hell, one may make a robust argument that it’s infinitely extra wholesome from a psychological standpoint than being so singularly-minded on basketball that all the things else fades into oblivion.
Are there areas the place Luka may mature? Completely. Is he additionally 25-years-old and people who find themselves of their mid-twenties are likely to not be very mature? Certainly. That is now the Mavericks cross to bear, and irrespective of how a lot they attempt to justify their horrible commerce, they made a mammoth mistake.
