It’s been a week since the Dallas Mavericks decided to trade franchise talisman Luka Doncic, and the NBA world is still in shock. Analysts have spent the entire week talking about the trade on TV, and almost every ex-pro in the league has contributed to the discourse. Shaquille O’Neal, who spoke of it in brief, wasn’t going to keep his deep insight to himself for long. Finally, on his podcast, he has provided some interesting insight of his own.
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Instead of contributing to the discourse around the Mavs’ decision to trade Luka, Shaq praised the Slovenian for how professional he’s been through this whole ordeal. He called him a better person than he was and claimed that if he was traded and blindsided in the manner that the 25-year-old was, he’d be irate, and would have made some very unflattering public statements.
“Kudos to Luka for being professional. He’s better than I am, cos I would’ve went clean the f**k off. 25? Averaging 28? All-NBA? You motherf**kers trading me in the middle of the night? So I hope when he goes back to Dallas he f***ing k*lls them every time. That right there is gonna be must-see TV.”
Not only was the Mavs’ decision to trade Luka shocking, but the comments that followed felt downright excessive to a lot of NBA fans. NBA insiders claimed that Dallas felt Luka’s fitness and conditioning would’ve been an issue going forward.
GM Nico Harrison also spoke about his upcoming $345 million supermax extension this summer. He insinuated that the front office and management had doubts about Doncic’s commitment to the team.
“We really feel like we got ahead of what was going to be a tumultuous summer, him being eligible for the supermax and also a year away from him being able to opt out of any contract,” Harrison said in an interview.
While all of this had been going on, Doncic had not said a single bad thing about the Mavs. As Shaq put it, he’s been a professional through it all and has refused to comment on anything that has come out about his health and fitness.
Luka Doncic wants to take “the high road”
In his introductory presser in LA, the first few questions Luka fielded were all based on the comments made by Harrison and the reports given by NBA insiders. While he heard them all patiently, Doncic wasn’t interested in stirring something up.
Rather than engage in answering the questions, he said he would be taking “the high road.” He simply thanked his former teammates and colleagues in the Mavericks organization.
When asked about his thoughts about the decision to trade him, once again, Luka stayed professional. “That’s their decision so I have no comment on that,” Doncic said. “They made a decision. I don’t know why. But that’s their decision so I can’t do nothing about it.”
Instead of getting hung up on what the Mavs did, Doncic made it clear he has only one goal in LA, and that’s to win championships. “That’s it,” Doncic said. “Win a championship. You don’t come here for nothing else but championships. So, I have everything left to prove. And the goal is to win a championship.”
