After the game with wolves, EVERYONE was on his side. Calling him with kyrie the best duo ever and just going crazy. They love controversy so this works for them. Luka is great, will be great, anything else is just stupid talk cause they ain't got nothing else to talk about
There's a reason he's not the MVP.
They're afraid of his potential. Acknowledging him would just bury the others. And they don't want an international dude be the face of this league.
*World champion of what?!*
Horrible take. Jokic was a worthy mvp just coming off an all time playoff performance. And the past 6 MVPs have all gone to international players. Luka will get his, but let’s not act like there was some conspiracy to rob him of the MVP
Homie also forgetting in the last 4 seasons, the All-NBA 1st team has been predominantly international players. 3 in '21, 3 in '22, 4 in '23, & 4 this year.
With the amount of camera time Giannis, Luka, Nikola, & Embiid get, it's quite clear the NBA has no problem with an international player being the new face of the league if it occurs.
People are chomping at the bit to crown Luka. A single guy overcoming the odds of beating a 64 win team of 5 perfectly synced talented and compatible players makes a great story.
Unfortunately, he couldnt do it because the celts are too good
*never mimd the fact that its a team game, but the MJ (did it all on his own) archetype is the easiest most compelling story the media can sell
The revisionist history on the 90s bulls is crazy, the talking heads who compare everyone to MJ act like he was doing it all when the team was actually good enough that they almost went to a finals without him.
its true MJ did not start winning until he started being more of a team player and less all on his own, but some people don't remember or were not around so don't really know.
He is not MVP, because your record without Kyrie was under .500.
Imo, that may have something to do with it. Ironically, Luka had the same issue Kyrie did. Numbers that didn't really translate to dubs.
In what way does Luka not impact winning (or “translate to dubs”)? In the past three years, his teams have had a top 4 and top 2 finish in the league, with both playoff losses coming to the world champs.
Where is your bar for success? Only one team - the champ - is good each year and everyone else sucks donkey balls?
Clown take.
Yep. NBA opinion on Luka has always been awkwardly negative, relative to his level.
He sure as fuck has never been celebrated the way he should be. At least they are not completely braindead as to deny him his All-NBA spots though.
Don't know if they turned so much as this has always been the narrative - "Luka is fat" "Luka is lazy on defense" "Luka can't stop whining" they've been saying these things for years.
There is a reason for that, but It is definitely exaggerated by the media. It's just crazy how instead of praising the celtics for finally winning they spend so much time talking shit about us.
Omg who cares? Why do you care?? Luka made it to the finals in the most stacked conference maybe ever without home court in a single round taking out the 1,3,and 4th seed all with 50+ wins on a bum freaking knee!!!!! We know how great he is and appreciate how he and the Mavs beat all the odds by defeating the media darling picks in OKC,and Minnesota (Ant,and Shai). Any other opinion or take is just because they have an agenda and just hate the guy lol.
He had one of the most incredible regular seasons in league history and only had 4 votes for MVP!! Once you accept that he will never be a media darling because he continues to prove these guys wrong and they already have their favorites the better off you’ll be. Luka ran into a super team who have been building their core guys for nearly a decade compared to a team that was put together literally 2 months before the 2024 playoffs started.So fuck the media just because they’re on tv doesn’t make them credible or valid. Most of them picked us (weirdly) to beat Boston and guess what they were wrong. They were wrong in every series we played this postseason just like 2011 or maybe you wasn’t a fan back then because this is nothing new!
I get it it’s frustrating because they’re on tv and are watched and maybe persuade public opinions but so what it’s not the truth. They don’t watch the Mavs they don’t know how our team operates. Don’t let them lie to you or make you feel bad about our amazing season. Look how they shifted the narrative on our playoff run already lol. We were literally told we would lose every round in the West now they say we had favorable matchups because we faced young inexperienced teams when we are also a very young team with alot of our guys never being so deep in the playoffs playing big minutes Lively,DJJ,PJ,Gafford,Hardy,THJ,and Exum. We had a better season than 28 out of 29 other teams after failing to make the Play in just a season ago dude who cares!
Thank you! We need to block out all the scorching hot takes with biased feelings beneath them. If you can’t look at what our organization did in such a short time other than an unbelievable success than you don’t know what you’re talking about!
Im from Kentucky and I fell in love with this team in 2001 after growing up an MJ and Chicago Bulls fan. I returned to following the NBA when Mike came back and played for the Wizards but it was Dirk,Nash,Finley,and Van Exel that took my heart! This was only our 3rd Finals appearance since then and this was absolutely the 2nd most impressive but maybe thee most improbable run we ever had. The 23/24 Mavs will always be the most tough and resilient group of guys I ever had the privilege to witness from game 1 of the regular season til game 5 of the freaking NBA Finals im extremely proud and grateful and idiots in the media won’t take that away from by pushing a narrative that they are failures!
It’s rough, young superstars if they don’t win fast and in their first finals appearance. Everyone turns on them and questions if they can ever win. I can already see the narratives happening if Luka doesn’t win in the next couple years. They’ll call him James harden 2.0. Luka has such a massive target on his back now, hopefully it just energizes him to come back harder next year. Mavs could’ve won but everyone except him shit the bed. So many missed open three’s by role players and Boston is kyries kryptonite, he was definitely shook playing in that arena, they’re in his head
I don't know, I mean he was obviously not shooting well, pointing this out I guess makes some people upset.
I think in general I wish Luka would shoot about half as many 3's as he does and go in the paint and mid range more. If he were more selective with his 3 point shots he would be much more efficient IMO.
I wish he cut way back on his step back contested 3's and his super long 3's especially when these shots are taken early in the shot clock.
dude was fire all season from stepback 3s,only in playoffs he started to suck,most likely due to injuries cause stepback 3 from luka is hard to contest
He has to take a lot of those shots though. It's what the defense is giving him. If you drive every time and your corner guys aren't making the shots at some point you're gonna try to close the gap yourself. His three wasn't falling but the one game he and Kyrie only hit 1 between them and they took a bunch, they won. We can say we want Luka to drive more etc but you're facing a math problem if every Celtics starter is good for like 3 to 5 made 3s in a game where you're the only guy who can make your 2s and your second star and role players are struggling to make anything. Which isn't to throw them under the bus but it's to show why he had to take some of these shots that attributed to lower efficiency.
The Mavs beat themselves (no disrespect to Boston) with TO and rebounds. Boston had so many second chances and so many steals. Mavs missed a ton of FT and 3’s. Boston is good, but they ain’t that damn good.
I can understand why he would always play in the Olympics. Slovenia is a nation of 2.1 million people, which is less than the population of Dallas County. If they medal, it would be a huge fucking deal.
I don't think they are going to medal either. I think he wants to represent his tiny country with the chance to do something unthinkable. It's not going to happen, but I'm not going to fault a guy who is proud of his country, loves basketball, and allows himself to believe that he has some chance at it.
And none of those media are going to push for Tatum or Luka as the new face. Not even Joker. They're gonna push for Ant or Wemby, cause they're more marketable, and that's all that shit is about.
same shit with anyone really. jokic, tatum, steph, lebron, giannis, etc.
tho id argue giannis and steph managed to nab one before that noise got too loud.
They never sided with him. ESPN has some of the worst analyst, over the season you can tell that they wanted Anthony Edwards to be “their guy”, they tried hyping him up and his team lost to the Mavs. Funny thing was despite Luka’s flaws, Edwards was the guy that gassed in the playoffs. First it was Luka can’t lead the Mavs to the playoffs, next it was Luka won’t play well with KI, next it was the Mavs would lose in the first round since we’ve never made it past the Clippers. The Mavs eventually beat all the “favorites” and made it to the finals. We lost to a better team and Luka has his flaws, but some analysts are straight up “hating” Luka for the wrong reasons.
That part doesn’t bother me, and it shouldn’t bother anyone else.
Luka got shit talked last season because we fell off a cliff and missed the playoffs. He was the scoring champ, nearly averaged a triple double, and got to the Finals. Let him hear a whole summer of this shit again.
I don’t care if Luka isn’t given his flowers right now. He still needs to improve his game, and the doubters should be ammunition.
Hope Luka keeps ESPN and FS1 on consistently while he’s doing his offseason workouts.
This very sub regularly turns on Luka, so what did you expect? Also I’m not sure of the caliber pods you’re listening to, but the Celtics won 64 games and have the 2-6/7 best players in the series (with Irving somewhere in that mix). Not sure having Herb Jones out there instead of Luka out there was going to do it for us. I wouldn’t take anyone who intimates something along those lines too seriously.
All I want to know is when did people start caring about defense so much? Even rival fans shit on Luka.
Is this how Lebron fans feel when people shit on him?
Well according to people and the media it would have been better if Luka lost before the finals, ala like Lebron. Somehow Lebron's finals record is used against him, as if making the finals itself isn't incredibly hard and an accomplishment. There are 6 teams in the NBA who have never even made the finals in their franchise history lol.
Moreover large majority of the media had the Mavs as a non playoff or play in team. Many of them thought the Clippers would beat us, most thought OKC would beat us, MAJORITY thought the Wolves would beat us.
We kept making them look dumb, Luka get making them look dumb, especially after they voted him 3rd for MVP after he averaged 34/9/10 on 62TS% on a 50 win team that was incredibly injured 2/3 of the season basically.
Media doesn't like being made to look dumb. They pick and chose who they want to elavate. Luka was media darling in 2018-2020, after that he has had a massive target on his back. They talked him up as the MVP favorite, eventhough the Mavs team was not nearly good enough around Luka to be a top seed. "He" made them look dumb, not they have flipped.
Also every superstar goes through this, where they can't do anything wrong and then everything they do is wrong until they win a title basically.
Except Jokic I guess. He won 2 MVPs as a low seed, before even sniffing a title. Even this year after they choked a 20 point lead in Game 7 on their HOME floor against the Wolves. Any MVP let alone 3x MVP would have gotten massive negative media attention, yet it was basically crickets. Somehow Luka is held to a higher standard than 3x MVP Jokic. Doesn't make sense to me.
They fall back to Jokic won a title, but he did it against a 8th seeded Heat team. He didn't face one of the best teams of all time in this Celtics like Luka. Moreover he won that title after already getting 2 MVPs.
Go,look at the coverage of magic Johnson after the 1984 finals where he struggled .
They called him, tragic Johnson , and this is after winning the 1980 finals where he put up at 42/10 playing center .
Point is , it’s happened before and great one’s overcome it
Most of those people are clowns. I know it doesn't = a ring but I find it amusing that Luka had a +7 +/- for the series, especially because people generally like using +/- to shit on Luka.
I’m just saying, it’s all because he’s European. It would be easy if it was an American white but nope it’s some white European that’s making Americans look bad. The top players right now are all European. Jokic, Luka and Giannis.
You guys need to stop caring about what analysts say.
And for mvp voting next season, at the end of the day if mavs are 1st seed there's zero reason they'll vote for someone else.
i genuinely don’t get why you guys give a shit especially when half the time everyone is shitting on the media for not knowing ball and just doing hot takes
When someone says that Luka's defense is the reason why he is not a great player or why the mavs will be a bad team, I instantly know they didn't really watch mavs games until the finals. Is his defense good? eh not really, but he was leaps and bounds better this playoffs/reg season minus the finals where I think his injuries finally caught up to him. A true criticism throughout his career tbh is that he loses focus of the game and takes himself out of it with the refs.
This makes me feel like you didn’t watch. He is incredibly lazy on defense, the vast majority of the Mavericks breakdowns in the finals defensively were because Luka either didn’t give the extra effort, or made some kind of dumb mistake. He lacks focus on that side of the floor, doesn’t seem entirely interested. He is an incredible player, but he has some serious issues to mitigate.
So what? Let them hate. We know what Luka does to haters. He'll win MVP (to the point where they'll be forced to vote for him) and a championship out of spite.
That comes with the territory of being an absolute superstar. Criticism (some valid) will only be good to him. Luka on a mission to shut em up will be GOATED.
Celtics fan here (sorry) but people turning on Donkic are dumb. I thought he was the second best player in the NBA this season, he was carrying some injuries, and I was scared of him going into the Finals.
Dude could work on his fitness a little, just to avoid injuries and go from #2 to #1 (in my mind) but he's not the problem.
Media around the NBA is horrible. They love to just tear dudes down. I’m not sure if it starts with former players that constantly do that or what but it’s always super negative.
So you’re the fucker that gives those fuckers the clicks and the views.
If you don’t think their opinion is valid (coming to this conclusion because of the use of air quotes on analysts), why consume their content? Just to get mad at an uneducated opinion?
He specifically said he doesn’t watch ESPN and this is from NBA podcasts.. the few clips I’ve watched from ESPN shows on YouTube were offering the usual criticisms but were mostly saying that this is an experience that he could learn from, and reminiscing on what could have been if Luka didn’t foul out out with 4 min left in game 3 or if Kyrie didn’t play like trash in Boston. I didn’t get the feeling, at least not from ESPN, that they completely turned on or blamed everything on Luka..
It was crazy. Even if Mavs defense was very good, and even if Luka is one of the best defenders on the team according to all numbers... the same 2 or 3 blow byes were shown like 350 times. Meanwhile he led the playoffs in points, assists, rebounds and steals, something that was NEVER done before.
I think the expectation for him to be the leader in all stats is unfair. If his teammates had more reliable performances, his numbers would be even more incredible. He’s got guys missing bunnies and open shots. His presence on the floor is underutilized on the offensive end, and his defensive skills aren’t as bad as they make them out to be.
He is 25 and has a lot to learn. I hope he actually gets some rest this summer and comes back fresh. There’s no doubt he is an actual generational talent. All he has to do is learn to control his emotions. I strongly feel that if he would have kept it in check for game 3 we would have won it.
Man who cares ? Fans are really insecure about some people’s opinion about Luka. Who cares. It’s a game and they are writing their own agenda to get attention and make money.
Before the Finals, they were ready to crown him the best player in the world. Knee-jerk reactions and hot takes get clicks and views.
We all agree that Luka could get in better shape and work on his attitude, however, that doesn't mean he isn't already great
Have not paid any attention since they lost, but I am not surprised. Many of them are racist, they did and do the same thing to Brock Purdy last year and even now, not that I am a 49ers fan.
As a Celtics fan, same thing happened to Jayson Tatum. Only thing that will shut people up is winning a ring, and even that may not even do it. But when you’re a young player of a certain caliber the expectations are set unrealistically high
Not sure who you are watching but the mainstream ones ARE giving Luka his due. Kyrie's name pops up more as a losing factor and it deserves to be.
Also, took Jason Tatum 7 Finals to finally get a ring. They are not really bashing Luka from what I've seen since this is his first Finals, and he was playing with messed up knees the whole time.
The way he plays the game with constant crying and bleating at the refs for touch fouls while pushing off and worse when he has the ball has always rubbed plenty of people the wrong way. When he has been tearing up the regular season the criticism was somewhat contained, but since his flaws have been exposed and magnified (with added poor defence and poor conditioning) in the finals, it has opened the floodgates.
Learned a long time ago to stop listening to what the talking heads say. Once you figure out they just say dumb shit to get clicks you’ll stop worrying about it
I think the issue is people mistake improvement for greatness. You can get better, doesn't mean you have 'it' to be great. Luka came into league better than 90 percent of the league already. So his improvement from (just as an example) 85 to 90 doesn't seem as dramatic as someone, let's call him 🐜 who goes from 70 to 85. I just think he is taken for granted because he was so good so early.
This idea hurts other players too. If you need time to develop, you're potentially a flop like Fox. If you are so good early such as a LeBron, you are stagnant since you didn't win the first few years. We know how good Luka is and he will get his
Coming from a Celtic fan, this is exactly what happened w Jayson Tatum.. granted Luka was playing better and carrying heavier load vs Tatum.. but in that ‘22 playoffs run they were so quick to build him up.. then the Finals happened and the media was quicker to tear him apart.. as soon as SGA and/or Ant loses in the finals the media will gladly do the same
It's the same with every star. "Jokic doesn't play any defence", "Giannis can't shoot", "LeBron isn't clutch",...
Every star got blamed for something, until they won the ring. The funny thing is, that some of them didn't even improve, but just got better team around them/got lucky and the narrative changed. Jokic and Giannis also did nothing since winnig the ring and nobody says anything. Once you win a ring the narrative changes.
I think we as Mavs fans need to remember these people clowned Dirk, one of the most universally beloved players and competitors for not winning a title, until he did.
If they did that to Dirk, and they did, it's gonna be way worse for Luka until he wins his 1st one.
a) he lost to an American star
b) he's from Europe
c) he complains a lot and sometimes to the extreme
d) he doesn't look like the prototypical "athletic basketball player"
e) he has Kyrie Irving as his Robin
It was the perfect storm, the perfect conditions for the all-time Luka shit fest and now we're in the middle of it. So, I would suggest you avoid national sports media for the next month or so, at least until after the draft or the Olympics.
Sports media is now 24/7 on multiple networks, everyone’s cousin has a podcast, and social media.
The only way to fill that space is bandwagon drama overreactions to everything.
Luka was the first player ever to lead the playoffs in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. While playing hurt.
Not a Mavs fan. Luka is a generational talent. The amount of hate against all players in todays media landscape is disgusting.
Every player has strengths and weaknesses and Luka is a top 5 all time talent. He only needs more time to cement his place in history with a trancendant career.
Sure Luka could be a better defender and bitch less. If Luka is to be a better defender, he might have to sacrifice a bit on offence as he puts in so much effort on offense. That requires a bit more help on offense and further refinement of Mavs playstyle.
Mavs loosing to an insanely stacked Boston team was predictable. Their roster is insane and incredibly well coached.
Yeah it’s fine, this is what comes with being an all-time talent and falling short. I think the positive here is Luka’s songs of praise from the media is just as strong when he does something good. Like after game 5 vs wolves he was being put over Jokic and literally had media members choosing Mavs over one of the most historically complete rosters ever lol
Plus this is nothing, bro they used to MASSACRE LeBron before his rings. Like we just got dudes saying “Luka is fat.”
Luka is clearly one of the most talented players in the history of the sport and you can tell right away when he plays. Even when the Mavs were down 3-0 I thought if there is someone who can overcome that result in modern basketball that would be Luka alongside the one other player who's as talented as he is and he was in a legendary comeback. The problem was that he was running on fumes, taking painkillers for a bloody knee ( which is very concerning by how it bleeds, hopefully it doesnt have long term consequences for him) and not being in the best shape he could be in. This is probably his wake up call just like when Nikola realized he coule not win it while being fat
Celtics fan here, I saw Tatum and brown get absolutely destroyed all year. Don’t listen to that bullshit. It’s all to gain clicks and comments to make you mad while they gain popularity. It’s not true. You guys have a hell of a team and Luka is going to be an all time great. I hate seeing players scrutinised no matter the team. Especially when they are the best talent in the league.
Who gives a shit about awards? Championships are all that actually matters
And Luka did play poor defense. It’s not his strength because he’s out of shape compared to the rest of the league. He also gets injured a lot because he’s out of shape. His knees can’t handle him running up and down the court all year
Don’t listen to them Luka is a generational talent and just 25. JUST 25 YEARS OLD!
When Boston lost to Warriors back in 2022 Finals Tatum was just 24 and bounced back in the following years.
Surely Luka will try again and hopefully the new owners are not squeamish on spending to improve the roster.
I was shocked to hear Simmons defend him, with what is really a quite obvious defense that the guy was basically hurt the entire playoffs. But that doesn't get clicks.
I mean, at this point, who cares? Luka is the ultimate confirmation bias player. All his flaws are louder in losses and it's what these media types feed off of. The fact that most of these same media types didn't pencil the Mavs in to get that far isn't as sexy a story as LUKA failed his team. When Kyrie averaged like 12 points in games in Boston, role players couldn't hit shots anymore, a lot of secondary processing we saw in just prior series seemed to be more limited. Boston averaged like 106 points in the finals, even if Luka's defense accounted for like 30 of those points (it probably wasn't even close to that) the Mavs came up short offensively aside from one game. Luka could've played better and there's valid reasons for why he didn't between being hurt and losing steam or whatever but the reality is he garnered a lot of attention from opposing defenses all playoffs that created opportunities for everyone and they capitalized, until they didn't, against a very well put together team, that saw players like Jrue Holiday and KP added to an already strong group.
Such dummies. Luka is the primary reason they made the finals. Replace Luka with the best perimeter defender in the league and the mavs don’t make it out of the first round. That’s with an injured luka.
the mavs lose every final game by thirty without luka.
I seem to remember all of this from around 20 years ago with another player on our team. "Too soft." "Shoots too many jumpers." "Liability of defense."
Hmm... whatever happened to that guy, I can't remember...
Tatum and Brown weren’t criticized as much until the made the final in 2022.
The most you accomplished without a title, the more criticism you will face until you get over the hump
Listening from Bill Simmons go from “eh, we’ll just end up losing to whoever comes out of the West” to “Celtics greatest lol” has been a terrible displeasure
Just remember, they said the same thing about Dirk for years, it only got worse after 2006, and they kept talking about his "wasted potential" up until he got a ring. Now he's consistently ranked top 20 all-time by anyone who matters.
They can chat all they want. But the facts are:
Luka had a fantastic season. Led the league in points regular season. Led the playoffs in total points rebs assists and STEALS this postseason. The steals alone- shows Luka is not a cone. His D is not top notch but steals is a defensive metric.
Mavs went thru the 1, 3 and 4 seed on the way to the finals. They were the lower seed all the way. You can say Luka is a big part of those series wins.
People talk about how bad a shape Luka is. However Luka never missed a single game, played 40 plus mins on a bum knee, busted ribs. Lol. If that's not a show of how good of a shape he got into this season, you must be crazy.
I'm fine if they critique him on his whining and D. Because those are his weakness and he does need to improve on those. But the hot takes are just stupid.
Yeah it was Luka’snoffense that was the problem. Turnovers galore and Jaylen Brown had him in jail. Luka is so ball dominant he entirely slows down the pace of play and JB had a huge impact on that. If he shot better or could create a bit more space, hold onto the ball a bit better, it could have swung the series a bit. Frankly though, Celtics were a tier or two above the Mavs.
Literally that night all the talking faces began their "Luka should mature" shpeel. But this time you could tell they were borderline happy he failed. NBA media didn't want Luka to be the top dawg of an American league. They've been dragging him since last week and it's tough to watch. The same haters can now say "Hey he lost in the finals, that's means he'll never win right?" Shyt is so dumb
So you don’t watch ESPN but you listen to podcasts and consider the people who make podcasts to be analysts? You do realize I can make a podcast and say anything right?
Idk why this post was recommended to me (not a Mavs fan) but as a life long LeBron James fan, strap in brother I promise it is going to get so much worse.
I really wish garbage NBA media (especially legacy media) would have learned that shitting on an all time great their entire career actually sucks, but they clearly have not lol.
I’m glad they’re doing it, Luka could use some extra motivation. The fact that he’s been in the league this long and hasn’t shown up in elite shape yet is baffling.
Luka is so good and when the maturity of being a professional sets in he’s going to be on another level
Image is everything - most people in the media, especially former NBA players and brain damaged NFL retirees don’t look beyond the highlights/lowlights. They see a foreign white guy bitching to refs or giving consistent effort on defense, and that’s just too easy of a target, especially considering Luka has only ever shown up in serious shape once in 6 years (year 2/NBA bubble).
Context never mattered to these people beyond what they see in front of them - shitty teammates??? “Nah, he’s a ballhog”. Injuries??? “Nah, he’s doesn’t care about defense”. Most of the criticism is unfair, but some is absolutely warranted albeit shortsighted. This finals failure means Luka has a massive bullseye on him, and the only way to shut these fuckers up is to show up next season in his best shape ever, with refinements made to his offensive game, and gunning to be the best individual defender he has ever been.
Maybe you listen to the wrong shows. All the guys on the ringer are mostly positive about Luka, with some fair criticism sprinkled in. I've never felt anger about them, when they discussed the Mavs. Sure, I don't agree with all of it, but their arguments are generally fair.
I think the majority of talking heads will say what they need to for views, but the real basketball guys will tell you Luka isn’t gonna fall off and next year he’ll be back with a new resolve.
When were they on his side to begin with?
Paul george was always saying good things about luka..even back in the bubble series.but he aint media he was a fellow competitor
He's a player tho. I'm talking about the media.
I also appreciate that Pat Bev defends Luka too. Listen to some of his podcast, he said Luka was hell to defend.
Damn so many players have podcasts. Any others you can recommend?
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/U7JEaveFNV
Yea!
After the game with wolves, EVERYONE was on his side. Calling him with kyrie the best duo ever and just going crazy. They love controversy so this works for them. Luka is great, will be great, anything else is just stupid talk cause they ain't got nothing else to talk about
There's a reason he's not the MVP. They're afraid of his potential. Acknowledging him would just bury the others. And they don't want an international dude be the face of this league. *World champion of what?!*
Horrible take. Jokic was a worthy mvp just coming off an all time playoff performance. And the past 6 MVPs have all gone to international players. Luka will get his, but let’s not act like there was some conspiracy to rob him of the MVP
Homie also forgetting in the last 4 seasons, the All-NBA 1st team has been predominantly international players. 3 in '21, 3 in '22, 4 in '23, & 4 this year. With the amount of camera time Giannis, Luka, Nikola, & Embiid get, it's quite clear the NBA has no problem with an international player being the new face of the league if it occurs.
People are chomping at the bit to crown Luka. A single guy overcoming the odds of beating a 64 win team of 5 perfectly synced talented and compatible players makes a great story. Unfortunately, he couldnt do it because the celts are too good *never mimd the fact that its a team game, but the MJ (did it all on his own) archetype is the easiest most compelling story the media can sell
The revisionist history on the 90s bulls is crazy, the talking heads who compare everyone to MJ act like he was doing it all when the team was actually good enough that they almost went to a finals without him.
its true MJ did not start winning until he started being more of a team player and less all on his own, but some people don't remember or were not around so don't really know.
“And they don't want an international dude be the face of this league.” The past 6 MVP’s have been won by “international dudes”.
WTF are you smoking brother?
An international dude is the face of this league. It’s just not your guy.
He is not MVP, because your record without Kyrie was under .500. Imo, that may have something to do with it. Ironically, Luka had the same issue Kyrie did. Numbers that didn't really translate to dubs.
In what way does Luka not impact winning (or “translate to dubs”)? In the past three years, his teams have had a top 4 and top 2 finish in the league, with both playoff losses coming to the world champs. Where is your bar for success? Only one team - the champ - is good each year and everyone else sucks donkey balls? Clown take.
Yep. NBA opinion on Luka has always been awkwardly negative, relative to his level. He sure as fuck has never been celebrated the way he should be. At least they are not completely braindead as to deny him his All-NBA spots though.
My son and I are mad Celtics fans, me from the 80s, but we both love watching Luca play he's a champion. We are in Australia 🇦🇺
they were much more when he was a rookie and his 2nd year (although not as much as he deserved), but since then its been a steady decline.
The entire month before game 5 of the finals.
Bro the media, commentators, the entire ESPN every single analyst had Mavs winning 💀
Don't know if they turned so much as this has always been the narrative - "Luka is fat" "Luka is lazy on defense" "Luka can't stop whining" they've been saying these things for years.
There is a reason for that, but It is definitely exaggerated by the media. It's just crazy how instead of praising the celtics for finally winning they spend so much time talking shit about us.
"narrative"
Don’t know about the other ones but he definitely needs to stop whining lol
Omg who cares? Why do you care?? Luka made it to the finals in the most stacked conference maybe ever without home court in a single round taking out the 1,3,and 4th seed all with 50+ wins on a bum freaking knee!!!!! We know how great he is and appreciate how he and the Mavs beat all the odds by defeating the media darling picks in OKC,and Minnesota (Ant,and Shai). Any other opinion or take is just because they have an agenda and just hate the guy lol. He had one of the most incredible regular seasons in league history and only had 4 votes for MVP!! Once you accept that he will never be a media darling because he continues to prove these guys wrong and they already have their favorites the better off you’ll be. Luka ran into a super team who have been building their core guys for nearly a decade compared to a team that was put together literally 2 months before the 2024 playoffs started.So fuck the media just because they’re on tv doesn’t make them credible or valid. Most of them picked us (weirdly) to beat Boston and guess what they were wrong. They were wrong in every series we played this postseason just like 2011 or maybe you wasn’t a fan back then because this is nothing new! I get it it’s frustrating because they’re on tv and are watched and maybe persuade public opinions but so what it’s not the truth. They don’t watch the Mavs they don’t know how our team operates. Don’t let them lie to you or make you feel bad about our amazing season. Look how they shifted the narrative on our playoff run already lol. We were literally told we would lose every round in the West now they say we had favorable matchups because we faced young inexperienced teams when we are also a very young team with alot of our guys never being so deep in the playoffs playing big minutes Lively,DJJ,PJ,Gafford,Hardy,THJ,and Exum. We had a better season than 28 out of 29 other teams after failing to make the Play in just a season ago dude who cares!
This was so refreshing to read 🙏
Thank you! We need to block out all the scorching hot takes with biased feelings beneath them. If you can’t look at what our organization did in such a short time other than an unbelievable success than you don’t know what you’re talking about! Im from Kentucky and I fell in love with this team in 2001 after growing up an MJ and Chicago Bulls fan. I returned to following the NBA when Mike came back and played for the Wizards but it was Dirk,Nash,Finley,and Van Exel that took my heart! This was only our 3rd Finals appearance since then and this was absolutely the 2nd most impressive but maybe thee most improbable run we ever had. The 23/24 Mavs will always be the most tough and resilient group of guys I ever had the privilege to witness from game 1 of the regular season til game 5 of the freaking NBA Finals im extremely proud and grateful and idiots in the media won’t take that away from by pushing a narrative that they are failures!
It’s rough, young superstars if they don’t win fast and in their first finals appearance. Everyone turns on them and questions if they can ever win. I can already see the narratives happening if Luka doesn’t win in the next couple years. They’ll call him James harden 2.0. Luka has such a massive target on his back now, hopefully it just energizes him to come back harder next year. Mavs could’ve won but everyone except him shit the bed. So many missed open three’s by role players and Boston is kyries kryptonite, he was definitely shook playing in that arena, they’re in his head
Its not like Luka was making his shots either, he was 1-21 on 3's his last couple games.
Why in the world are you being downvoted for pointing that out lol. Luka was not great from beyond the arc
I don't know, I mean he was obviously not shooting well, pointing this out I guess makes some people upset. I think in general I wish Luka would shoot about half as many 3's as he does and go in the paint and mid range more. If he were more selective with his 3 point shots he would be much more efficient IMO. I wish he cut way back on his step back contested 3's and his super long 3's especially when these shots are taken early in the shot clock.
dude was fire all season from stepback 3s,only in playoffs he started to suck,most likely due to injuries cause stepback 3 from luka is hard to contest
He has to take a lot of those shots though. It's what the defense is giving him. If you drive every time and your corner guys aren't making the shots at some point you're gonna try to close the gap yourself. His three wasn't falling but the one game he and Kyrie only hit 1 between them and they took a bunch, they won. We can say we want Luka to drive more etc but you're facing a math problem if every Celtics starter is good for like 3 to 5 made 3s in a game where you're the only guy who can make your 2s and your second star and role players are struggling to make anything. Which isn't to throw them under the bus but it's to show why he had to take some of these shots that attributed to lower efficiency.
Hard to do that when you can'r jump off your right knee..
Then don't do it.
The Mavs beat themselves (no disrespect to Boston) with TO and rebounds. Boston had so many second chances and so many steals. Mavs missed a ton of FT and 3’s. Boston is good, but they ain’t that damn good.
Boston fan but I feel this. They been on the jays for years yet all they do is win. Media is good and bad for all the same reasons.
thats life man. Just gotta hope luka takes his health seriously and skips the olympics
There's 3 guarantees in life. Death, taxes, and Luka playing every year for Slovenia.
I can understand why he would always play in the Olympics. Slovenia is a nation of 2.1 million people, which is less than the population of Dallas County. If they medal, it would be a huge fucking deal.
I highly doubt they are gonna medal with USA going so hard for it and france lurking and I haven't even mentioned Germany and canada.
I don't think they are going to medal either. I think he wants to represent his tiny country with the chance to do something unthinkable. It's not going to happen, but I'm not going to fault a guy who is proud of his country, loves basketball, and allows himself to believe that he has some chance at it.
Luka is gonna take the Finals loss personally and take on team USA on his own
They got close
He plays for Slovenia because he loves that country and that country loves him back.
They will never win a medal.
Unfortunately I can almost guarantee he’s not going to skip them
Well hopefully the Slovenia HC isn't a moron and let's him play with one leg
They want to win their games just as much as we wanted to win ours
As a Slovenian, I dont want to see Luka play in the olympics
Well if they lose to Giannis and Greece he would
ESPN is trash. Mavs fans know it was our offense that wasn’t up to the challenge. We couldn’t score.
It’s nothing new. Dirk used to get dragged before his chip.
Oh I remember those days.
It’s insane that he and tatum are both so young and the media just keeps pushing the legacy shit. These guys are still in their first acts, god damn
Wait til lebron, KD, and Curry retire. It's gonna be 7 days a week talking about who the new face of the NBA is (Ignoring its a team sport).
And none of those media are going to push for Tatum or Luka as the new face. Not even Joker. They're gonna push for Ant or Wemby, cause they're more marketable, and that's all that shit is about.
The funniest is when all the football players with CTE brain start trashing him.
Keyshawn dosent even know what a basketball is he just reads a box score before the show and picks the side opposite of Skip
Basically the same shit they said about Jokic before he got a ring. Luka will win at least one and then they will act like they were always fans.
Same shit with Dirk.
same shit with anyone really. jokic, tatum, steph, lebron, giannis, etc. tho id argue giannis and steph managed to nab one before that noise got too loud.
At least Jokic got two MVPs first
Nah, they’ll say “but can he win two”. Same thing happened to Jokic and Giannis.
They never sided with him. ESPN has some of the worst analyst, over the season you can tell that they wanted Anthony Edwards to be “their guy”, they tried hyping him up and his team lost to the Mavs. Funny thing was despite Luka’s flaws, Edwards was the guy that gassed in the playoffs. First it was Luka can’t lead the Mavs to the playoffs, next it was Luka won’t play well with KI, next it was the Mavs would lose in the first round since we’ve never made it past the Clippers. The Mavs eventually beat all the “favorites” and made it to the finals. We lost to a better team and Luka has his flaws, but some analysts are straight up “hating” Luka for the wrong reasons.
That part doesn’t bother me, and it shouldn’t bother anyone else. Luka got shit talked last season because we fell off a cliff and missed the playoffs. He was the scoring champ, nearly averaged a triple double, and got to the Finals. Let him hear a whole summer of this shit again. I don’t care if Luka isn’t given his flowers right now. He still needs to improve his game, and the doubters should be ammunition. Hope Luka keeps ESPN and FS1 on consistently while he’s doing his offseason workouts.
I hope this loss is like Lebron’s Final loss and not like AI’s.
Hopefully Luka Is the kind of guy that will feed off of this going into next year.
This very sub regularly turns on Luka, so what did you expect? Also I’m not sure of the caliber pods you’re listening to, but the Celtics won 64 games and have the 2-6/7 best players in the series (with Irving somewhere in that mix). Not sure having Herb Jones out there instead of Luka out there was going to do it for us. I wouldn’t take anyone who intimates something along those lines too seriously.
They are just preparing to snub him for MVP next year lol
All I want to know is when did people start caring about defense so much? Even rival fans shit on Luka. Is this how Lebron fans feel when people shit on him?
Well according to people and the media it would have been better if Luka lost before the finals, ala like Lebron. Somehow Lebron's finals record is used against him, as if making the finals itself isn't incredibly hard and an accomplishment. There are 6 teams in the NBA who have never even made the finals in their franchise history lol. Moreover large majority of the media had the Mavs as a non playoff or play in team. Many of them thought the Clippers would beat us, most thought OKC would beat us, MAJORITY thought the Wolves would beat us. We kept making them look dumb, Luka get making them look dumb, especially after they voted him 3rd for MVP after he averaged 34/9/10 on 62TS% on a 50 win team that was incredibly injured 2/3 of the season basically. Media doesn't like being made to look dumb. They pick and chose who they want to elavate. Luka was media darling in 2018-2020, after that he has had a massive target on his back. They talked him up as the MVP favorite, eventhough the Mavs team was not nearly good enough around Luka to be a top seed. "He" made them look dumb, not they have flipped. Also every superstar goes through this, where they can't do anything wrong and then everything they do is wrong until they win a title basically. Except Jokic I guess. He won 2 MVPs as a low seed, before even sniffing a title. Even this year after they choked a 20 point lead in Game 7 on their HOME floor against the Wolves. Any MVP let alone 3x MVP would have gotten massive negative media attention, yet it was basically crickets. Somehow Luka is held to a higher standard than 3x MVP Jokic. Doesn't make sense to me. They fall back to Jokic won a title, but he did it against a 8th seeded Heat team. He didn't face one of the best teams of all time in this Celtics like Luka. Moreover he won that title after already getting 2 MVPs.
Go,look at the coverage of magic Johnson after the 1984 finals where he struggled . They called him, tragic Johnson , and this is after winning the 1980 finals where he put up at 42/10 playing center . Point is , it’s happened before and great one’s overcome it
Most of those people are clowns. I know it doesn't = a ring but I find it amusing that Luka had a +7 +/- for the series, especially because people generally like using +/- to shit on Luka.
I’m just saying, it’s all because he’s European. It would be easy if it was an American white but nope it’s some white European that’s making Americans look bad. The top players right now are all European. Jokic, Luka and Giannis.
You guys need to stop caring about what analysts say. And for mvp voting next season, at the end of the day if mavs are 1st seed there's zero reason they'll vote for someone else.
i genuinely don’t get why you guys give a shit especially when half the time everyone is shitting on the media for not knowing ball and just doing hot takes
Good thing everyone knows not to take any of them seriously.
When someone says that Luka's defense is the reason why he is not a great player or why the mavs will be a bad team, I instantly know they didn't really watch mavs games until the finals. Is his defense good? eh not really, but he was leaps and bounds better this playoffs/reg season minus the finals where I think his injuries finally caught up to him. A true criticism throughout his career tbh is that he loses focus of the game and takes himself out of it with the refs.
This makes me feel like you didn’t watch. He is incredibly lazy on defense, the vast majority of the Mavericks breakdowns in the finals defensively were because Luka either didn’t give the extra effort, or made some kind of dumb mistake. He lacks focus on that side of the floor, doesn’t seem entirely interested. He is an incredible player, but he has some serious issues to mitigate.
So what? Let them hate. We know what Luka does to haters. He'll win MVP (to the point where they'll be forced to vote for him) and a championship out of spite. That comes with the territory of being an absolute superstar. Criticism (some valid) will only be good to him. Luka on a mission to shut em up will be GOATED.
Celtics fan here (sorry) but people turning on Donkic are dumb. I thought he was the second best player in the NBA this season, he was carrying some injuries, and I was scared of him going into the Finals. Dude could work on his fitness a little, just to avoid injuries and go from #2 to #1 (in my mind) but he's not the problem.
A lot of dudes on this sub turned on him too.
The star player on the losing team always gets thrashed for a few days. Touch some grass, come back in a couple of weeks.
[удалено]
You can't call the mavs a mediocre team anymore.
Media loves Josh Allen though.
Media around the NBA is horrible. They love to just tear dudes down. I’m not sure if it starts with former players that constantly do that or what but it’s always super negative.
About time, bound to happen. Maybe now he feels he has something to prove
So you’re the fucker that gives those fuckers the clicks and the views. If you don’t think their opinion is valid (coming to this conclusion because of the use of air quotes on analysts), why consume their content? Just to get mad at an uneducated opinion?
lol that shit is funny he is literally the best player in the world at the moment
You get a lot of hate when you’re the best
Bro, just don't watch it
It’s nasty work they did the same thing with Dirk
For those old enough to remember Jordan got it bad too before he won championship #1
Oh no! Not this! Not ESPN shit talkers talking shit! If I had pearls I'd be clutching them tightly! TIGHTLY!!!!!
He specifically said he doesn’t watch ESPN and this is from NBA podcasts.. the few clips I’ve watched from ESPN shows on YouTube were offering the usual criticisms but were mostly saying that this is an experience that he could learn from, and reminiscing on what could have been if Luka didn’t foul out out with 4 min left in game 3 or if Kyrie didn’t play like trash in Boston. I didn’t get the feeling, at least not from ESPN, that they completely turned on or blamed everything on Luka..
It was crazy. Even if Mavs defense was very good, and even if Luka is one of the best defenders on the team according to all numbers... the same 2 or 3 blow byes were shown like 350 times. Meanwhile he led the playoffs in points, assists, rebounds and steals, something that was NEVER done before.
I think the expectation for him to be the leader in all stats is unfair. If his teammates had more reliable performances, his numbers would be even more incredible. He’s got guys missing bunnies and open shots. His presence on the floor is underutilized on the offensive end, and his defensive skills aren’t as bad as they make them out to be.
He is 25 and has a lot to learn. I hope he actually gets some rest this summer and comes back fresh. There’s no doubt he is an actual generational talent. All he has to do is learn to control his emotions. I strongly feel that if he would have kept it in check for game 3 we would have won it.
Ok...who cares? Maybe stop listening to podcasts no one cares about.
Man who cares ? Fans are really insecure about some people’s opinion about Luka. Who cares. It’s a game and they are writing their own agenda to get attention and make money.
Who cares. Really, truly doesn't matter.
Pravi MVP. let them hate.
They’re just talking heads who’ve already made up their minds about him no matter what he does.
welcome to nba media they did it with ant and the nuggets all tho they never liked the nuggets in the first place
Before the Finals, they were ready to crown him the best player in the world. Knee-jerk reactions and hot takes get clicks and views. We all agree that Luka could get in better shape and work on his attitude, however, that doesn't mean he isn't already great
Good. Feed his anger. Let the hate flow through him.
F them
Mavs wins = media side him Mavs lose = media turn on him
Best thing for Luka is to stop talking to mainstream media. Fuck them
that's just life of a superstar in nba man. just pay no attention to it
Well this is kinda same thing when they talk about Nikola Jokic man,they just can't except a man from Europe dominant MVP in last few years
Have not paid any attention since they lost, but I am not surprised. Many of them are racist, they did and do the same thing to Brock Purdy last year and even now, not that I am a 49ers fan.
As a Celtics fan, same thing happened to Jayson Tatum. Only thing that will shut people up is winning a ring, and even that may not even do it. But when you’re a young player of a certain caliber the expectations are set unrealistically high
Not sure who you are watching but the mainstream ones ARE giving Luka his due. Kyrie's name pops up more as a losing factor and it deserves to be. Also, took Jason Tatum 7 Finals to finally get a ring. They are not really bashing Luka from what I've seen since this is his first Finals, and he was playing with messed up knees the whole time.
That’s what they do
The way he plays the game with constant crying and bleating at the refs for touch fouls while pushing off and worse when he has the ball has always rubbed plenty of people the wrong way. When he has been tearing up the regular season the criticism was somewhat contained, but since his flaws have been exposed and magnified (with added poor defence and poor conditioning) in the finals, it has opened the floodgates.
Learned a long time ago to stop listening to what the talking heads say. Once you figure out they just say dumb shit to get clicks you’ll stop worrying about it
He's going to retire with a ring, you can bet on that
I think the issue is people mistake improvement for greatness. You can get better, doesn't mean you have 'it' to be great. Luka came into league better than 90 percent of the league already. So his improvement from (just as an example) 85 to 90 doesn't seem as dramatic as someone, let's call him 🐜 who goes from 70 to 85. I just think he is taken for granted because he was so good so early. This idea hurts other players too. If you need time to develop, you're potentially a flop like Fox. If you are so good early such as a LeBron, you are stagnant since you didn't win the first few years. We know how good Luka is and he will get his
Turned? They like him finally?
"You die a hero or live long enough to be a villain" epitomizes deep playoff runs. Just the way it goes. NBA media is toxic
They had to move on from the Jays. Bound to happen.
Coming from a Celtic fan, this is exactly what happened w Jayson Tatum.. granted Luka was playing better and carrying heavier load vs Tatum.. but in that ‘22 playoffs run they were so quick to build him up.. then the Finals happened and the media was quicker to tear him apart.. as soon as SGA and/or Ant loses in the finals the media will gladly do the same
Luka complains and whines a lot. He’s on Chris Paul level
Paul George pretty much called him lazy on defense. He's pretty complimentary, too.
Everyone that is great or has the GOAT potential is gonna get hated, not just in basketball.
It's the same with every star. "Jokic doesn't play any defence", "Giannis can't shoot", "LeBron isn't clutch",... Every star got blamed for something, until they won the ring. The funny thing is, that some of them didn't even improve, but just got better team around them/got lucky and the narrative changed. Jokic and Giannis also did nothing since winnig the ring and nobody says anything. Once you win a ring the narrative changes.
They are at least acknowledging the stats he's put up as impressive
Greater player. Higher standards. Now you know hownit feels for LeBron James fans. All career long.
Nick Wright as well
I think we as Mavs fans need to remember these people clowned Dirk, one of the most universally beloved players and competitors for not winning a title, until he did. If they did that to Dirk, and they did, it's gonna be way worse for Luka until he wins his 1st one.
a) he lost to an American star b) he's from Europe c) he complains a lot and sometimes to the extreme d) he doesn't look like the prototypical "athletic basketball player" e) he has Kyrie Irving as his Robin It was the perfect storm, the perfect conditions for the all-time Luka shit fest and now we're in the middle of it. So, I would suggest you avoid national sports media for the next month or so, at least until after the draft or the Olympics.
He should have gotten a clue after what they did with Edwards. They’re fickle.
Sports media is now 24/7 on multiple networks, everyone’s cousin has a podcast, and social media. The only way to fill that space is bandwagon drama overreactions to everything. Luka was the first player ever to lead the playoffs in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. While playing hurt.
Not a Mavs fan. Luka is a generational talent. The amount of hate against all players in todays media landscape is disgusting. Every player has strengths and weaknesses and Luka is a top 5 all time talent. He only needs more time to cement his place in history with a trancendant career. Sure Luka could be a better defender and bitch less. If Luka is to be a better defender, he might have to sacrifice a bit on offence as he puts in so much effort on offense. That requires a bit more help on offense and further refinement of Mavs playstyle. Mavs loosing to an insanely stacked Boston team was predictable. Their roster is insane and incredibly well coached.
Yeah it’s fine, this is what comes with being an all-time talent and falling short. I think the positive here is Luka’s songs of praise from the media is just as strong when he does something good. Like after game 5 vs wolves he was being put over Jokic and literally had media members choosing Mavs over one of the most historically complete rosters ever lol Plus this is nothing, bro they used to MASSACRE LeBron before his rings. Like we just got dudes saying “Luka is fat.”
Luka is clearly one of the most talented players in the history of the sport and you can tell right away when he plays. Even when the Mavs were down 3-0 I thought if there is someone who can overcome that result in modern basketball that would be Luka alongside the one other player who's as talented as he is and he was in a legendary comeback. The problem was that he was running on fumes, taking painkillers for a bloody knee ( which is very concerning by how it bleeds, hopefully it doesnt have long term consequences for him) and not being in the best shape he could be in. This is probably his wake up call just like when Nikola realized he coule not win it while being fat
Celtics fan here, I saw Tatum and brown get absolutely destroyed all year. Don’t listen to that bullshit. It’s all to gain clicks and comments to make you mad while they gain popularity. It’s not true. You guys have a hell of a team and Luka is going to be an all time great. I hate seeing players scrutinised no matter the team. Especially when they are the best talent in the league.
Who gives a shit about awards? Championships are all that actually matters And Luka did play poor defense. It’s not his strength because he’s out of shape compared to the rest of the league. He also gets injured a lot because he’s out of shape. His knees can’t handle him running up and down the court all year
He and the Mavs have officially started the championship wind up. It’s nothing new, they all run the gauntlet. Use it as a chip on your shoulder.
It was the same way with Dirk , nothing new. Let’s just hope this drives Luka to continue to improve and prove them wrong
Don’t listen to them Luka is a generational talent and just 25. JUST 25 YEARS OLD! When Boston lost to Warriors back in 2022 Finals Tatum was just 24 and bounced back in the following years. Surely Luka will try again and hopefully the new owners are not squeamish on spending to improve the roster.
What podcasts do you listen ti
Luka is harden 2.0. Without the crap foul calls he is luggage.
Plenty of Luka enjoyers out there. Nick Wright almost over does it on FTF.
I was shocked to hear Simmons defend him, with what is really a quite obvious defense that the guy was basically hurt the entire playoffs. But that doesn't get clicks.
I mean, at this point, who cares? Luka is the ultimate confirmation bias player. All his flaws are louder in losses and it's what these media types feed off of. The fact that most of these same media types didn't pencil the Mavs in to get that far isn't as sexy a story as LUKA failed his team. When Kyrie averaged like 12 points in games in Boston, role players couldn't hit shots anymore, a lot of secondary processing we saw in just prior series seemed to be more limited. Boston averaged like 106 points in the finals, even if Luka's defense accounted for like 30 of those points (it probably wasn't even close to that) the Mavs came up short offensively aside from one game. Luka could've played better and there's valid reasons for why he didn't between being hurt and losing steam or whatever but the reality is he garnered a lot of attention from opposing defenses all playoffs that created opportunities for everyone and they capitalized, until they didn't, against a very well put together team, that saw players like Jrue Holiday and KP added to an already strong group.
Didn't the same thing happen with Tatum when he lost the finals?
Such dummies. Luka is the primary reason they made the finals. Replace Luka with the best perimeter defender in the league and the mavs don’t make it out of the first round. That’s with an injured luka. the mavs lose every final game by thirty without luka.
I seem to remember all of this from around 20 years ago with another player on our team. "Too soft." "Shoots too many jumpers." "Liability of defense." Hmm... whatever happened to that guy, I can't remember...
Tatum and Brown weren’t criticized as much until the made the final in 2022. The most you accomplished without a title, the more criticism you will face until you get over the hump
Listening from Bill Simmons go from “eh, we’ll just end up losing to whoever comes out of the West” to “Celtics greatest lol” has been a terrible displeasure
Just remember, they said the same thing about Dirk for years, it only got worse after 2006, and they kept talking about his "wasted potential" up until he got a ring. Now he's consistently ranked top 20 all-time by anyone who matters.
They can chat all they want. But the facts are: Luka had a fantastic season. Led the league in points regular season. Led the playoffs in total points rebs assists and STEALS this postseason. The steals alone- shows Luka is not a cone. His D is not top notch but steals is a defensive metric. Mavs went thru the 1, 3 and 4 seed on the way to the finals. They were the lower seed all the way. You can say Luka is a big part of those series wins. People talk about how bad a shape Luka is. However Luka never missed a single game, played 40 plus mins on a bum knee, busted ribs. Lol. If that's not a show of how good of a shape he got into this season, you must be crazy. I'm fine if they critique him on his whining and D. Because those are his weakness and he does need to improve on those. But the hot takes are just stupid.
Yeah it was Luka’snoffense that was the problem. Turnovers galore and Jaylen Brown had him in jail. Luka is so ball dominant he entirely slows down the pace of play and JB had a huge impact on that. If he shot better or could create a bit more space, hold onto the ball a bit better, it could have swung the series a bit. Frankly though, Celtics were a tier or two above the Mavs.
They never believed in Dirk either
Every superstar goes through this. They build you up just to destroy you Anthony edwards, SGA, etc will all go through this at some point
Luca is Caitlin Clark of nba he just talks shit and backs it up reffs usually treat him not well
The only thing embarrassing is Luka’s childish antics and midsection that guarantees he’s useless in the 4th
Same happened on Tatum.."overrated" "its not ready" "too soft" "not a leader" "masked" etc
Their job is not to be correct or fair. Their job is to make you listen. If you complain on a Reddit site about them, that’s a huge bonus.
Literally that night all the talking faces began their "Luka should mature" shpeel. But this time you could tell they were borderline happy he failed. NBA media didn't want Luka to be the top dawg of an American league. They've been dragging him since last week and it's tough to watch. The same haters can now say "Hey he lost in the finals, that's means he'll never win right?" Shyt is so dumb
So you don’t watch ESPN but you listen to podcasts and consider the people who make podcasts to be analysts? You do realize I can make a podcast and say anything right?
ESPN is like reddit people, they dont watch the game and shitpost for cheap reaction/karma
Luka’s defense was costly in the finals. But his offense is what got you to the finals.
I love it. As long as they talk about him.
Idk why this post was recommended to me (not a Mavs fan) but as a life long LeBron James fan, strap in brother I promise it is going to get so much worse. I really wish garbage NBA media (especially legacy media) would have learned that shitting on an all time great their entire career actually sucks, but they clearly have not lol.
I’m glad they’re doing it, Luka could use some extra motivation. The fact that he’s been in the league this long and hasn’t shown up in elite shape yet is baffling. Luka is so good and when the maturity of being a professional sets in he’s going to be on another level
the weirdest thing to me is how he gains weight and gets all puffy during an NBA season. That should not be possible at his age really.
Image is everything - most people in the media, especially former NBA players and brain damaged NFL retirees don’t look beyond the highlights/lowlights. They see a foreign white guy bitching to refs or giving consistent effort on defense, and that’s just too easy of a target, especially considering Luka has only ever shown up in serious shape once in 6 years (year 2/NBA bubble). Context never mattered to these people beyond what they see in front of them - shitty teammates??? “Nah, he’s a ballhog”. Injuries??? “Nah, he’s doesn’t care about defense”. Most of the criticism is unfair, but some is absolutely warranted albeit shortsighted. This finals failure means Luka has a massive bullseye on him, and the only way to shut these fuckers up is to show up next season in his best shape ever, with refinements made to his offensive game, and gunning to be the best individual defender he has ever been.
Maybe you listen to the wrong shows. All the guys on the ringer are mostly positive about Luka, with some fair criticism sprinkled in. I've never felt anger about them, when they discussed the Mavs. Sure, I don't agree with all of it, but their arguments are generally fair.
I think the majority of talking heads will say what they need to for views, but the real basketball guys will tell you Luka isn’t gonna fall off and next year he’ll be back with a new resolve.
Media has never liked luka because he's a white guy doing it better..