Luka Doncic has struggled to maintain his fitness in the past couple of seasons and Mark Cuban believes handling that problem would make him unstoppable.
Advertisement
Luka Doncic is undoubtedly one of the best basketball players in the world right now. Although he couldn’t make it to the starting lineups of the All-Star game, he is easily among the top-10 players in the NBA.
In fact, he is one of the two top players along with Giannis Antetokounmpo who is most people’s favorite player to build a franchise around.
But his carelessness towards his fitness has done some damage to his aura. In the last two seasons, he has weighed around 260, which is 30 pounds more than his listed weight.
Dallas Mavericks star has been under constant criticism for his fitness by the media. And his All-Star starter snub had something to do with that as well. He received lesser media votes than the starting backcourt duo of the West, Ja Morant, and Stephen Curry. So Doncic decided to take matters into his own hands.
He entered the All-Star break averaging 35.4 points, 9.8 assists, and 10.3 rebounds in 10 games, including a career-high 51-point outing over the Los Angeles Clippers. And Mavericks owner Mark Cuban believes this surge in his form has something to do with a couple of things.
Mark Cuban knows Luka Doncic wants to be the best after the criticism for his weight
In a radio appearance on The Morning Musers this week, Cuban said he thinks Doncic’s motivation has come from the criticism he received earlier in the season for his reported weight gain, as well the All-Star snub.
“I think he was humbled a little bit, he didn’t like being called out for his weight and other things, and it finally clicked that there’s a level of discipline that’s required.” Cuban said. “All athletes at his level go through it at some level, where things are just easy, and you’re always used to being the best. You’re always used to getting all the accolades, and then when something doesn’t go according to what you expected it makes you reconsider.”
The 3x All-Star is averaging over 27 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists in the season, which would be good enough for MVP cheers in any other season. But his fatigue late in multiple games before these last 10 games was a point of concern. And Luka has managed them well by taking control of his diet.
“He knows what he needs to do, and it finally clicked that if he’s going to be the best – and I know he wants to be the best – that there’s certain things he has to control,” Cuban said. “Once he got a handle on those things it’s just been Katy bar the door, he’s just been unstoppable.”
Having seen his excellence on the court for 3-years in the NBA, and a couple more years in Spain, we tend to forget that the Slovenian guard is just 22-years of age.
Some things at that point can go south, but his determination and love for the game will always pull him back where he belongs, to be among the best.
