More and more details are surfacing about the Dallas Mavericks’ lengthy list of issues with the team’s former star Luka Doncic.
As every basketball fan on the planet knows, the Mavericks traded Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers days before this year’s NBA trade deadline. Mavericks GM Nico Harrison was considered the prime mover who wanted the deal done.
On Monday, The Athletic published a feature on Harrison and his path to becoming the Mavericks’ top executive. The piece also included an interesting tidbit about Dallas reportedly embellishing or even outright faking an injury Doncic had in November that had forced him to miss five games.
After a 41-point victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Nov. 19, Doncic was diagnosed with a “right wrist sprain” that forced him to miss the team’s remaining five games that month. According to The Athletic’s report, the injury classification “was not entirely true.” The “reality” of the situation was that Dallas had supposedly sat Doncic to give him time to “improve his conditioning.”
If the report is true, Doncic’s conditioning at the time must have been exceptionally poor for the team to deliberately sit him for two weeks. The man was still scoring north of 25 points per game at that point in the season.
Some NBA stars famously (or infamously) play themselves into shape as the season progresses, and Doncic seems to fit in that category. But the Mavericks clearly expected more from its former franchise player.
Doncic did look rejuvenated once he returned in early December. He scored at least 30 points in three of his first four games back, which were all Mavs wins. The Slovenian guard suffered a serious calf strain 10 games after his 5-game hiatus. The calf injured sidelined him for 22 more contests.
The next time he took the court, he was no longer a member of the Mavericks.
