Mavericks star and Slovenian captain Luka Doncic played through a thigh injury at the World Cup, he told reporters following Thursday’s loss to Lithuania.
“I do not know what to say,” Doncic said, according to Eurhoops. “It’s not okay. At the same time, I have to prepare for one more game, and then for a whole season in the NBA.”
The All-NBA guard said last month that he had an MRI to get the injury checked out.
“It is an old injury, which caused me problems in March in the NBA,” Doncic said. “Therefore, we performed an MRI. Everything is okay. Nothing worse.”
It’s troubling that Doncic, 24, is still dealing with lingering effects from the thigh strain he sustained late in the 2022/23 season. His March MRI was clean, and he wound up missing five games.
Oddly, Doncic played a tournament-high 37 minutes against Lithuania less than 24 hours after losing in the quarterfinals to Canada, notes Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews. The game was basically meaningless, as both teams had already been eliminated from medal contention and couldn’t qualify for the Olympics.
“The answer is very simple. It’s because Luka is very competitive,” head coach Aleksander Sekulic responded to BasketNews when asked about Doncic’s motivation for the game.
“I don’t know where he found energy, but he said he feels great and wanted to play,” Sekulic added. “He’s our best man regarding energy. He was trying to motivate everybody and put everybody on another level. I think we were not on the level we wanted to be, but he tried hard in the game, timeouts, and locker room. He tried all the time to push them to their limits. But that’s why he played because he felt good.
“This shows his character and that he loves basketball. That also shows a lot of how serious he is when he plays for his country and that he plays with his heart.”
Perhaps that explains why Doncic played one additional minute — 38 — as Slovenia defeated Italy on Saturday to finish seventh place.
Despite the injury, Doncic still put up his typical gaudy stats at the tournament, averaging 27.0 points, 7.1 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 2.5 steals in 32.2 minutes. However, he also struggled with turnovers, committing 4.3 per contest.
Stars never bring up injuries. End of story.
I’m starting to not really appreciate this guy’s entire makeup. He whines when he doesn’t get a whistle, he would rather complain than get back on defense at least two three four times a game, and here he is complaining about a thigh injury from May.
If you’re hurt don’t play and step aside for someone else who is NOT hurt. You’re so great they need you at 70%? Have a seat. It says above that your numbers were the same so why even bring up a quad strain? Almost done with this guy.
Especially weird to see him mention it being an injury from March, yet somehow it’s still a factor? That’s not a ‘thigh injury’. That’s a tear that likely would required surgery, and you know we would’ve heard about that. Even a reoccurrence would be a separate injury given the timetable involved.
So what is he suggesting exactly? I don’t think the Mavs would’ve let him compete if there was a significant leg injury bothering him for months. But this would seem to be pretty on-brand for him, as it’s not the first time he’s used the injury excuse.
And let’s not forget his work ethic is questionable at best. Sure, he’s finally trimmed some of the baby fat off, but one has to wonder if he’s doing the rest of the work required to keep himself healthy? It’s not simply a matter of putting on muscle and staying in game shape. There’s a lot more that goes into giving oneself the best chance of avoiding injury as well as in recovering from them.
Luka certainly has the talent to win a championship with the right pieces around him, but you almost start to wonder if it’ll ever happen? Because it kinda feels like against all reason, he’ll find ways to come up short time and time again. One can never have too many excuses, after all.
It’s unfortunate because you want superstars like him to be easy to root for. But beyond his great play, he’s a pretty frustrating guy.
Superstars need more reality checks early in their career…
All these young pups get everything handed to them too quickly… From Ja and Zion to Luka and Ant…
They all have confidence above their stature in the sport because of their potential to reach the stature they believe they are at…
All are doing many things to avoid fulfilling their potential…
This guy is the European James harden.
Translation: Expect a fat Doncic to start the season.