FIRST TAKE | Did Luka Doncic tarnish his image? – Stephen A. breaks Mavs’ NBA Finals loss to Celtics

FIRST TAKE | Did Luka Doncic tarnish his image? – Stephen A. breaks Mavs’ NBA Finals loss to Celtics

from the field which continued his struggles in Boston here’s Dallas postgame you know now that the series is over uh how how how much were you hurting it doesn’t matter if I was hurt uh how much was I hurt uh I was out there uh try to play uh but I didn’t do enough yeah failing at this stage definitely sucks it’s it’s a bitter feeling um because you want to keep playing and you and you feel like your best game is coming up next and the shots that you shoot next game are coming up and now we got to wait I think what 2 and a/2 months 3 and a half months to the new Champion um you know gets a chance yeah so you know we’ve been able to um celebrate our our wins but also learn how to celebrate our losses to and how to grow from that okay Andrea you’re at first do you feel like Luca’s finals performance tarnished His Image no no not at all I think it helped Luca’s image this is his first Finals appearance and I know we gave him a ton of grief for game three in his performance and falling apart and getting all over the referees and not being engaged with his teammates at all we gave him absolute hell for that game but the only reason they were in those games was because of Luca the only reason they were in position in that game was because of Luca and his response in games four and game five you can’t say enough about it yes he responded in game four at home with a great defensive performance but even in game five there were calls that didn’t go his way I know there were calls that he didn’t like he spoke to the referees at times but I still saw defensive effort and offensive effort he did not go down quietly he never quit even at times they’re down 20 and Luca makes a sidestep three and you’re like oh that’s a great play by Luca it’s not enough but he was still out there trying to make great plays he still sat in a stance in game five at Boston I think this is an experience that we can respect Luca for in the way that he responded and one that he can build off of I expect him to come back more in shape ready to defend and ready to chase another championship again from here that sounds beautiful beautiful Soliloquy on your part must say um however you defeated your own argument with that last sentence that you just thre out there he’ll come back in better shape that is the indictment against him see what happens is you don’t get to analyze just somebody’s game you get to analyze why there are deficiencies in the game if you have deficiencies because there’s just something that you needed to work on like you get your handle better get your jump shot better or whatever the case may be that’s fine game three you’re absolutely right we’ll get over that you throw that aside but what’s going to live with Luca more so or just as much as complaining about the refs and again he didn’t do that the last two games really so again he made a m but you looked at him it’s like you you you got to get in your bag this off season you got to get yourself in shape you got to commit yourself to being conditioned that is not something any athlete should ever want to to have said about them that your conditioning played a role in impeding your progress from being even more Elite than you showed and we know that LC the Luca is Elite he’s a superstar make no mistake about it but the point is when you look at a Jason Tatum and you look at a Jaylen Brown and you look at a Drew holiday and a Derek white and you look at a Al Horford for example who finally won that chip 38 years of age or whatever you do find yourself as asking Kyrie I’ll get to in a second when we get to Kyrie but in Lucas’s case he the conditioning the need to be in better shape and what have you definitely is something that was being talked about at the NBA Finals it’s just a fact but when when has Luca ever been in incredible shape well I’m saying to you it’s not about about being in incredible shape Andre it’s about looking at somebody and saying okay if you were at Peak performance I’m not talking about like you didn’t control everything you could control essentially if you that that that is the ultimate anytime we’re talking about greatness that is the ultimate indictment when I sit up there and I speak to Hall of Famers about these guys that’s one of the things they pay attention to one of the great great attributes that everybody Accords to LeBron James is the man’s Always In Shape he’s you know you got people writing stories about what he does to take care of his body the sacrifices that he’s willing to make you got a lot of guys not a lot of guys but you got some guys their game is something that they’ll work on but when you talk about being in that proper you going up against Jaylen Brown Jason T them boys you got to be in shape you got to have it you got to have that win that conditioning and we saw Luca playing at his Pace or whatever but we also saw him inhibited and limited to some degree because there’s what so much that he can do because the conditioning wasn’t on the level of the competition he was going up against luuka had an absolute historic playoff run his the fact that he came into the finals leading in points rebounds and assists amongst all players right absolutely they were the fifth seed yeah they come back and win three Series without home court advantage that is Luca that is something we’re going to remember but the thing about it is what is holding LCA back which is conditioning and is also his temperament with the referees has been holding him back since he was a teenager now he has overcome this many many times he won championships in Europe he’s gone to two conf you know he’s played I think six or seven years in the NBA he’s gone to two Conference Finals and one finals he is only 25 he is you know people criticize his defense fairly Dallas has won hundreds of games when him with him playing bad defense and they will win hundreds of games more but I think the frustration with Luca is that he hasn’t gotten those things right and that isn’t because he’s young he’s been dealing with it and being told about it for a decade now so do you think do you think he’s self-aware to realize that it’s an issue that it’s holding him back or is it just like white noise Molly this is a question that so many people who have worked with him and worked around him have asked because he is self-aware about so many other things there’s no way you could be this dominant of a player without having great awareness he just those two things are everybody has flaws what’s so frustrating about Luca is that these flaws are correctable look if you’re a great great basketball player and you’re 6′ one yeah what are you going to do in a league of giants you know nothing you can do about that if you work as hard as you possibly can on your game and you just don’t have touch and you can’t shoot that three-pointer because you don’t have it what are you going to do I get control it’s very it’s relatively very simple I mean it’s almost the it’s it’s almost the equivalent of asking you not to kiss snakes it’s almost the equivalent of asking you not to eat during during commercial breaks and stuff like that you can ask Molly to do a lot of different things asking her to fast and don’t eat that’s going to be a problem for her that’s not she’s going to eat between commercial breaks is what she does grown woman all of us all of us got whatever is it’s that something it’s like like he said okay but this is what I want to know so one second so what’s the narrative in the circles is he he doesn’t really like to train he doesn’t like to eat well does he like to party like what’s the deal what where’s the where’s the block he wants to chill still he’s 25 well he plays hard in the summer like he plays for the national team almost every summer in fact he kind of hinted that he might not be able to play for the national team in a couple of weeks which indicates to me he might be more injured than he’s been letting on that’s another story he has gotten better he’s actually come in in better shape recently yes but the condition he’s in here in the playoffs was not the condition he was in at the beginning of the season one last thing what’s the deal with the temperament it’s just like can’t reel it in I’m telling you I there are scouts that I’ve talked to who’ve shown me scouting reports from when he was 15 years old and they were like won’t shut up with the officials I promise you even though I wasn’t in Spain yeah I promise you his coaches were like Luca stop it with the officials it didn’t just happen since he’s been in the NBA in game three I I know it there is something to be said for having flaws or having shortcomings right if kissing snakes is mind that’s fine but you you kind of said it Wendy right you were like he overcame it in Europe and he won championships he’s overcome it to get to Conference Finals he’s now made an NBA Finals I don’t think he’s ever actually overcome it when your flaws are magnified in the NBA Finals what did Jaylen Brown talk about when Jason Tatum got hurt and he didn’t step up for his team when Jason Tatum didn’t step up in the finals when your flaws or your shortcomings are magnified in the final it can only be held against you how you react from there like how Luca takes care of his body from here is what we can determine his to yeah but I thought we were asking the question in terms of what was going to be the narrative about somebody as you moved forward looking at them going in the next like for example I look at Luca and I say greatness so okay what does he have to do to make sure he can get to the next level because I’m looking at his game and is pure and he has the capability we see a championship in on the horizon for him okay so what’s the thing that could hold him back it’s what we did with Tatum it’s what we did with brown after game seven last year always been Lucas’s narrative though he’s not in great shape so I think the narrative for Lucas stays same but at some point it’s like catches up to you you’re knock at the door not just that we didn’t pay attention to it that much because they hadn’t gotten there like golden state was in their way when they got to the Conference Finals or last year they missed the playoffs because there was a whole bunch of stuff in Dallas that was in his way could he and Kyrie coexist that was a question mark do you have the piece before Kyrie around do you have the pieces around them necessary in order for them to there’s been a plethora of questions I’m saying when you’re talking about okay it can only be answered I’m telling you when you come up short in the finals but you were knocking on the door we ask ourselves okay what’s the next step for you the next step for him is him maximizing his potential we all see it that’s his impediment and I’m just saying as far as this finals run goes the slight adjustment that he made in his temperament and in his defensive effort as far as His Image is concerned because that’s what we were asked about that mini narrative is what you hope to grow for Luca he made an adjustment he gave more defensive effort he wasn’t in shape to do it enough but he gave more defensive effort he controlled his temperament and now that manyi effort in those two games needs to become the norm for Luca and that’s what the narrative is can he do what he did in these final two games as far as effort and as far as temperament as as for to grow if he’s in shape because what do you do when you’re operating with fatigue yeah you are whining and compling you cuz you’re tired but that’s the narrative can he do what he did in those two games get in good shape which has always been the question for L I think we’re saying same yeah exactly I think we’re saying same I’m just curious who you feel like could actually get through to him on this subject I I promise you everybody has tried and obviously the M what about even even other greats in the NBA you know I don’t I don’t know you know Messi yeah maybe Messi because you know he grew up with you know he’s you know I don’t think he I don’t think he’s interested in hearing from seveny old basketball players before the finals when they won the Conference finals against Minnesota little small moment people were laughing it off and it’s no I’m not trying to apply that it was a big deal at all but as we here talking about this subject remember Michael Finley a former star with the Dallas Mavericks who’s now in the executive branch didn’t say a word just walked over to Luca in the middle of him fraiz himou of peeps while he was drinking the beer and took the beer from him and

FIRST TAKE | Did Luka Doncic tarnish his image? – Stephen A. breaks Mavs’ NBA Finals loss to Celtics