Luka Doncic's Constant Complaining
My theory on why
I have a theory about Luka Doncic and his incessant complaining to the referees, and it relates to his being overweight. He’s not really overweight, he’s just overweight for an NBA player. In fact, for an NBA player, he’s an 80’s sitcom actor in a Hawaiian shirt, fat enough to make the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
It doesn’t help that the Mavericks uniform, in a historical first that I’m aware of, features a reverse cummerbund which accentuates his giant ass. It’s like a seven-foot guy wearing a top hat. He should have complained about this and had it changed. He has the juice.
If you watched the NBA Finals any number of things could have stood out to you, but many casual fans were left wondering what Doncic’s problem is. He seemed extremely whiny and, unlike the gamesmanship that goes into a lot of players working the refs, he appeared to genuinely believe he was being singled out as a targeted individual.
Maybe he actually was. At a certain point, the officials are going to begin to personally dislike you, and they will act on it. I’m not saying it’s right, it’s just human nature. Like how cops are fond of shooting people in the face if they are given any lip.
This is a league where most every player complains about most every call, but none on Doncic’s level. He’s like the guy in Metallica circa 1989 known for being the alcoholic of the group.
It’s just become too much. He has a running dialog with at least one of the officials going during all moments of the game, pretty much any time he’s not handling the ball.
At several points during the playoffs he cost his team, because instead of getting back on defense he was at the other end of the floor complaining that he was fouled on the previous drive.
This is where my theory comes into play.
When I was a kid, I knew an older guy who smoked and drank a lot. He supposedly had emphysema, but if he did it was caused by his smoking several packs of cigarettes a day.
This guy lived in downtown Seattle near Pike’s Place Market. A pretty dense urban environment. He didn’t drive a car and walked everywhere. To the farmer’s market, the liquor store, the art supply store, the bank, anywhere he had to go, really.
I’d tag along with him from time to time, but I was perplexed by his behavior. As we strolled around the city, every minute or two he’d make me stop as he pointed out something unremarkable, like some flowers growing curbside or a building we’d seen a hundred times, and he’d give a brief, factually dubious speech about whatever it was.
“See these, these are orange tulips, first brought to America by George Washington, now mostly cultivated for use in crack rocks by the Japanese mafia.”
I finally asked an adult what was going on with him, and they explained that he didn’t have the lung capacity to walk for very long without getting winded, but he was embarrassed to admit this, so stopping to point out these things was his way of not passing out.
I think that’s what Doncic is doing. He’s a little too out of shape to always run back at the end of games, so he invents something to talk about—complain about in his case—and that is a foul that may or may not have happened.
It’s his way of overcompensating. Plus, complaining is easier than sprinting, sprinting sucks.
That’s my hot NBA take, and all I have for now, it’s been a long week. I’ll be back bigger and better next week. Until then, please subscribe if you haven’t already.