NBA News: Mark Cuban annihilates ESPN reporter Zach Lowe after Luka Doncic criticism

[playahaitian]

Mark Cuban annihilates ESPN reporter after Luka Doncic criticism

• by
  Mike Cruz
• February 5, 2021

Mark Cuban Annihilates ESPN Reporter After Luka Doncic Criticism

ESPN writer Zach Lowe is on the bad side of Mavs owner Mark Cuban after he made some claims about Luka Doncic that can't be...

clutchpoints.com

ESPN reporter Zach Lowe recently took a shot at Luka Doncic on his podcast “The Lowe Post” and called Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic “one of the biggest whiners in the league.” Mavs owner Mark Cuban didn’t particularly like the NBA writer’s eye-raising claim. Asked to give his thoughts while appearing on VICE TV’s “Cari & Jemele Won’t Stick to Sports,” the billionaire business did not hold back in delivering his NSFW-filled response to Lowe.




Via Josh Bowe of Mavs Money Ball:

“I’ll tell you exactly what I think. F— you, Zach Lowe. You don’t know s—, you know? I know Luka, right? And he’s not a big whiner. He’s passionate. He cares, he wants to win. He’s got some s— to him. He’s one of those European players where you’ll see him do like this all the time,” Mavs owner Mark Cuban said, while demonstrating a gesture “and talking in one of five different languages. But no, he’s not a whiner. He’s a baller.”

ESPN writer Zach Lowe made his assertions based on what he is seeing from Luka Doncic so far this season. The 2018-19 NBA Rookie of the Year has been very expressive to referees when he doesn’t get the benefit of their whistles, especially when defenses play him more physically.

Nevertheless, whether Lowe’s claims are true or not, it’s hard to fault Cuban here for defending his franchise superstar. Doncic takes the game very seriously and is very competitive. As Cuban alluded to, perhaps all of that is coming from his passion in playing the game of basketball.

Doncic has been playing at a high level in his 3rd NBA season, putting up averages of 27.2 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 9.4 assists. However, the former EuroLeague MVP has also gotten his fair share of criticism for his sub-par 3-point shooting through the start of the 2020-21 season. Through 22 games, Doncic is shooting just 29.6 percent from beyond the arc on nearly 7 attempts per night.

The Mavs haven’t been able to carry the momentum from a strong 2019-20 campaign, where they made the playoffs and gave the powerhouse Los Angeles Clippers a good fight in the first round of the playoffs. They are currently no. 14 in the Western Conference standings with a 9-14 record. Their most recent defeat came in the form of a 31-point drubbing at the hands of the Golden State Warriors.

'Fuck you, Zach Lowe. You don't know shit." Mark Cuban defends Luka Doncic following 'whiner' comments

On a recent episode of The Lowe Post podcast, ESPN NBA analyst Zach Lowe spoke with reporter Tim MacMahon, who covers the Dallas Mavericks for ESPN Dallas. The crux of the discussion was about the Dallas Mavericks but there some specific attention paid to star player Luka Doncic and his...

awfulannouncing.com

 

[Tha Great Muta]

That Pure Aryan Basketball shit ain't working out the way he thought it would huh?

 

[peterlongshort]

I used to work with a white dude like Mark Cuban. He always wanted the smoke from other white people. Fun times.

 

[Silk Dogg]

So is he about to yell at every reporter and broadcaster? Dude is the biggest whiner as Zach wasn't the first to point it out.

 

[bgbtylvr]

What’s with the white weave????

 

[REDLINE]

Mark’s a funny dude! And yea Luka does whine. I’m not sure if he’s one of the biggest but he whines

The league is in a bad state with the drawing of offensive fouls. One of his last games Luka leaned in to draw contact on a 3. Now I’m not exaggerating. He jumped and leaned into the defender so hard, that he fell and landed in the lane under the basket!

From the 3 point line!

 

[Nzinga]

He won't be able to recreate his 1980s Boston Celtics anytime soon.
This is a man who could have won a second NBA title but decided to
trade all his black players after they won him his first one.

 

[playahaitian]

That Pure Aryan Basketball shit ain't working out the way he thought it would huh?

rumor is Luka and Porzingas hate each other.

 

[ansatsusha_gouki]

Fuck Mark Cuban

 

[playahaitian]

How Luka Doncic’s Mavericks lost their joyful swagger and how they can get it back
Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks are off to a frustrating start after suffering their sixth straight loss on Monday night. (Richard W. Rodriguez/AP)
By
Ben Golliver
Feb. 3, 2021 at 3:25 p.m. EST
The Dallas Mavericks departed the Disney World bubble glowing like newlyweds, with Coach Rick Carlisle comparing Luka Doncic to Hall of Famers such as Larry Bird as the 21-year-old Slovenian guard entered the offseason as the early favorite to win the 2021 MVP award.

Instead of an extended honeymoon, Doncic and the Mavericks find themselves in an early season quagmire. After a last-second loss to the Phoenix Suns on Monday, Dallas (8-13) dropped to 13th in the West. External concerns and internal frustrations have mounted over the course of their six-game losing streak, and a frustrated Doncic questioned the Mavericks’ competitive spirit last week.
“Terrible,” Doncic said of Dallas’s effort following a blowout loss to the Utah Jazz. “There’s really not much to say. I’ve never felt like this. We’ve got to do something. This is not looking good. We’ve got to step up, talk to each other and play way better than this. It’s mostly effort. Right now, it’s looking like we don’t care, honestly, if we win games or not. [We need] more energy, more effort, dive for every ball, box out, everything. There’s a lot of things we can improve. I know we will.”
Fan dubbed ‘Courtside Karen’ by LeBron James apologizes for verbal altercation
Indeed, five doctors could diagnose the Mavericks with five different ailments, and they would all be correct. Dallas has endured numerous coronavirus protocol-related absences, dealt with a tough, road-heavy schedule and seen its vaunted offense fall off a cliff. Meanwhile, Doncic hasn’t quite lived up to sky-high expectations, and his sidekick, Kristaps Porzingis, has struggled badly since he returned from October knee surgery. While the Mavericks are hardly in crisis given Doncic’s youth and supreme talent, they will be forced to ponder some existential questions if they can’t reverse their negative momentum.
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Most of what ails the Mavericks can be traced back to their lagging offense and shooting woes. Last season, Doncic led the NBA’s top-ranked attack, emerging as a do-it-all playmaker who seemed capable of carrying a franchise with his scoring and passing like LeBron James, James Harden and Nikola Jokic. This season, the story has been more complicated: Doncic is averaging 27.3 points, nine rebounds and 9.4 assists, but the Mavericks rank 21st in offensive efficiency. No team has fallen off further from last season offensively than Dallas.
Outside shooting has been a major bugaboo. Last season, the Mavericks ranked second in three-point attempts and 10th in efficiency. This season, they rank 14th in attempts and 30th in efficiency. Some regression was expected after they outpaced expectations last season, but no one could have predicted that they would rank dead last in three-point percentage after more than 20 games. Dallas has missed sharpshooter Seth Curry, who was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers for Josh Richardson, and both Doncic and Porzingis are firing at career-low rates from outside.
The perimeter issues are interconnected. Without Curry, Doncic has been forced to carry a massive shot-making and playmaking burden, prompting him to settle more often for low-percentage attempts and causing ugly dry spells when he is off the court. Porzingis flashed deep shooting range in the bubble, and his presence as a floor-stretching center opened wide driving lanes for Doncic and the Mavericks’ other guards. With Porzingis shooting just 30.2 percent on threes in his first 10 games, the spacing has dried up.
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Dallas’s lack of continuity matters, too. Just as the Jazz has raced out of the gate with hot outside shooting and steady play night to night, the Mavericks have sputtered because of revolving-door lineups that have yet to generate much rhythm. Four starters — Richardson, Porzingis, Dorian Finney-Smith and Maxi Kleber — have missed at least nine games each this season. It’s safe to assume that the Mavericks’ three-point shooting, offensive efficiency and record will improve as that quartet collectively logs more time alongside Doncic.
“When things are difficult, it becomes even harder to bust out,” Carlisle said Monday. “We’ve just got to stay together and keep grinding. We’re doing too many good things to not push towards progress. We’re making progress with chemistry. We’re going to be positive. There’s a long, long way to go. We’ve got to stay upbeat and support each other.”
Dallas Mavericks big man Kristaps Porzingis has struggled with his outside shooting and his defensive mobility since returning from knee surgery in mid-January. (Rick Bowmer/AP)
Ultimately, Porzingis looms as the franchise’s biggest variable. When the 7-foot-3 Latvian center arrived to the NBA in 2015, he was hailed as “The Unicorn” for his combination of shooting and shot-blocking. By the time he received an all-star nod in his third season, Porzingis seemed as if he might develop into an all-around scorer who could punish defenses from the post, with midrange turnarounds and from well beyond the arc.
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As time has passed and Porzingis’s injury issues have mounted, the reality of his game hasn’t lived up to the mythical expectations or the five-year, $158 million max contract he signed in 2019. His lack of lower body strength has limited his effectiveness around the basket, he has shown little progress as a passer, and his scoring game has trended toward jump shooting rather than attacking off the dribble or regularly finishing plays above the rim. Defensively, he has appeared limited from a mobility standpoint since his mid-January return. Unless he can start hitting outside shots to keep defenses honest, he’s not bringing much to the table.
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“We don’t have our roles clear,” Porzingis said last week. “We’re just kind of out there playing. We’re a talented group, but until we have everybody playing together and having some time together off the court, I think we won’t really have that chemistry. I think we have to start realizing who we are and realizing our roles individually.”
Dallas’s long-term path to a title is heavily reliant upon Porzingis returning to top form and remaining healthy, something he has struggled to do while missing an average of 23 games over the past three seasons. Without Porzingis as a consistent second option, playoff defenses can load up on Doncic and dare the Mavericks’ lesser role players to beat them.
For now, a Porzingis renaissance is the Mavericks’ best hope: He is unlikely to return a star-caliber player in a trade given his contract and health history, and they are short on quality trade chips after parting with two first-round picks to land Porzingis in a 2019 trade with the New York Knicks. Worst of all, Dallas owes New York its 2021 first-rounder, which could land in the lottery barring a reversal of fortune this season.
Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic celebrates after draining a game-winning three-pointer to defeat the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 4 of a first-round playoff series. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
The depths of these ongoing struggles shouldn’t cloud the rosy longer-term view. Dallas can count on Doncic for another decade’s worth of prime-level play, and he has proved that he doesn’t need that much help to lead an exciting team to the playoffs. Doncic’s wide smile defined the Mavericks’ joyride to the 2020 playoffs, and his exuberant celebration after he hit a deep buzzer-beater during a first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers in August was the organization’s best moment in years.
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This season has been a drag for the Mavericks, and it has taken a toll on Doncic’s mood, body language and decorum with the referees. Yet it’s far from over; Dallas is only four games out of the fifth seed in the West’s crowded standings. Despite the rocky start and looming questions, Doncic must remember that franchises follow their franchise players, and he must understand that grumpiness will never be part of the solution.

 

[playahaitian]

rumor is Luka and Porzingas hate each other.

that's the rumor outta Dallas but it was kinda obvious it wasn't gonna be AUTOMATIC like MANY including Cuban thought.

How Luka And Kristaps' Relationship Is Like A Marriage. | Central Track

The Mavs Already Have The Strongest Young Duo In The NBA -- And The Scary Part Is They're Only Now Learning How To Communicate Like A Successful Couple.

www.centraltrack.com

 

[jack walsh13]

rumor is Luka and Porzingas hate each other.

I can see that shit too.

 

[SIDESHOW]

I can see that shit too.

yep, I would not be surprised at all.

 

[Tha Great Muta]

rumor is Luka and Porzingas hate each other.

I'd hate playing with Porzingas injury prone overrated ass too...I don't even watch basketball like that but I bet "The Unicorn" is hurt again ain't he?????

 

[REDLINE]

rumor is Luka and Porzingas hate each other.

Damn never heard that

 

[playahaitian]

Damn never heard that

I'd hate playing with Porzingas injury prone overrated ass too...I don't even watch basketball like that but I bet "The Unicorn" is hurt again ain't he?????

I can see that shit too.

I heard it in passing REAL SLICK on one of those NBA insider podcasts from a Texa beat writer

apparently its some wannabe "alpha dog" sh*t

sidebar..

apparently that ENTIRE concept of alpha dog is a MYTH?!?

 

[Bumpee]

He is whiny

 

[playahaitian]

WTF?!?!?!

Carlisle resigns as Mavs coach after 13 seasons

Rick Carlisle resigned as Dallas' coach, he told ESPN, ending his 13-year stretch with the club.

www.espn.com

Doncic on Nelson's Mavericks exit: 'Tough for me'

Luka Doncic said Thursday it was "tough" to see longtime president Donnie Nelson's exit from the organization.

www.espn.com

 

[playahaitian]

He is whiny

 

[playahaitian]

 

[ThaBurgerPimp]

Was pranked by another team mate....actually thought some female reporter was there using her mic as a toy