The Dallas Mavericks are capping off a disastrous season. The team traded for Kyrie Irving, hoping to become a threat in the playoffs, and now they’re not even likely to make it to the Play-in tournament.
Unsurprisingly, the fans and some media members were quick to point the finger at Kyrie. It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that chaos follows him wherever he goes, and it didn’t take long before it also happened in Dallas.
But according to former NBA champion Kendrick Perkins, it’s time people finally start holding Luka Doncic accountable, calling him out for his lack of leadership skills, body language, and poor physical shape.
Kendrick Perkins Rips Luka Doncic For His Lack Of Leadership
“Luka, it’s not everybody else around you all the time,” Perkins said. “Sooner or later, it is you. When I watch Luka, I get so disturbed by his body language. Not only towards the officiating but towards his teammates.”
“The pouting, the hanging of the head, going to the media. You talk about giving up a 132? How many of those points were on you last night? When are you gonna be accountable and say ‘I am tired of getting picked on? I’m gonna do more on the defensive side… I could at least give effort’… It’s easy to say it’s Kyrie’s fault or that J-Kidd doesn’t know what he’s doing. At what point do we start pointing the finger at Luka? About his bad habits, his poor leadership skills, about him not putting effort defensively, about them wether having to worry about he’ll be in shape? Those things matter,”Perkins said.
Stephen A. Smith Defends Kyrie Irving From Criticism
Notably, Stephen A. Smith had a similar take when discussing the Mavericks. Per the controversial pundit, Kyrie shouldn’t be to blame for the team’s failure, and he also pointed the finger at Doncic:
“I don’t have a single negative syllable to utter about Kyrie Irving,” Smith said. “He is not the problem in Dallas. He is averaging 26 a game, 51% shooting from the field, about 37% shooting from three-point range. He is a reliable offensive weapon in the fourth quarter. He has brought to Dallas what you brought him to Dallas to do.”
“Luka is the one, dare I say, that has a huge question mark hovering over him, and it’s nothing statistical,” Smith said. “Luka gets 41, and they lose the game. Luka’s not only depressed after the game; he looks depressed during the game.”
Doncic is too good of a player, so we just hope he can find some joy in the game again, even if that means shutting down the Kyrie-Doncic experiment even before it started. Whatever the case, the Mavs need to do something about this.
