One thing that isn’t spoken about much in regards to new Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic is that basketball is in his blood. His father, Sasa Doncic, is a former player and coach himself, playing professionally in Slovenia from 1993-2010, winning three Slovenian Cups and making six All-Star games.
Sasa Doncic would then go into coaching after his playing career ended so, needless to say, he knows about the business side of basketball to at least some degree. Like everyone else, Sasa had no clue that his son Luka would be getting traded to the Lakers, but he doesn’t like how the Mavericks have handled things in the aftermath of the deal.
In an appearance on Arena Sport Slovenia, Sasa spoke about the treatment Luka has received since the deal and feels his son does not deserve what he believes is unfair treatment with the negative stories leaking out about his conditioning amongst other things:
“I understand there comes a moment when you disagree with a certain philosophy. You don’t like this or that player, all good, I get it. But I think that exactly this secrecy, or should I say from some individuals, maybe even hypocrisy, this hurts me personally. Because I think that Luka absolutely doesn’t deserve this. Giving the fact that at least, as I know, sacrificed himself enormously and even all the stories now that someone is releasing that he wants to apologize for the things that they’re doing. I feel like this is very unfair from some individuals because I know that Luka respected Dallas a lot. He respected the whole city, helped children.”
The Mavericks reportedly have had issues with Doncic’s overall work ethic and dedication to the game with reports even saying that his weight had gone above 270 pounds and that returns from injury were taking longer as he would use that time to get into better shape.
But the elder Doncic reminded that Luka missed very little time and played a ton of minutes last year in leading the Mavericks to the NBA Finals:
“It wasn’t even a problem last year since, I am saying again, one individual said he’s not fit enough. That he played, I don’t know, 100 games, practically 40 minutes with two or three players constantly on him. That he was beaten and you say such things about him. I feel that this is very unfair from certain individuals. You traded him, stand by your actions but don’t look for excuses or alibis, that’s it.”
The issue in the eyes of Sasa isn’t that the Mavericks traded his son, but in that they are taking shots at Luka now that he is gone. But regardless of Dallas’ concerns, the Lakers are glad to bring him in and feel he will lead this franchise to a lot of success going forward.
Giannis Antetokounmpo celebrates Luka Doncic becoming face of the Lakers
The NBA game is an international one with many stars from around the world being the best players in the game. Luka Doncic is one of those and another international star is Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks. It appears Antetokounmpo loves Doncic being the face of the NBA’s premier franchise.
Giannis celebrated Doncic joining the Lakers, even saying that his dream is to see other European stars becoming the face of other major franchises like the New York Knicks and ultimately wished luck for everyone involved in the deal.
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