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 have been main character issues.
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 — corresponding to a style for beer and hookah — which have been some extent of concern for NBA sorts since he was a 19-year-old star for Real Madrid who was coming into the draft.”
Doncic’s love of beer and hookah, paired with a normal sense of “laziness” surrounding him resulted within the Mavericks deciding to commerce away their finest 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 concerning the notion and expectations of athletes. Positive, we will 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 an ordinary no person 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 person has.
Level being: If Luka Doncic is ready to drop a triple-double on any given night time, if he can lead a staff to the NBA Finals, if he can develop into considered one of solely 15 gamers in NBA historical past to attain 70 factors in a sport, then who offers 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 Chicken — all elite gamers who had their warts. That record 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 Chicken drank a lot in bars he acquired into bar fights — and my God, if you wish to even contact on the Showtime Lakers — with Kareem smoking extra grass than a soccer area, the quantity of cocaine at staff events, and gamers turning as much as apply so hung over they may 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 just a few beers or smoking a hookah with pals. Hell, one might make a robust argument that it’s infinitely extra wholesome from a psychological standpoint than being so singularly-minded on basketball that every thing else fades into oblivion.
Are there areas the place Luka might 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 regardless of how a lot they attempt to justify their horrible commerce, they made a mammoth mistake.
