Luka Doncic's Path to NBA Glory: Overcoming Mental Challenges

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00:00Okay, so Luka Doncic, as I've talked about Kyle here on the show, I saw LeBron James

00:10go through this in Cleveland and go through it in Miami a little bit at the beginning.

00:15And we've seen history like this happen with Michael Jordan, with players that are superstars

00:22that have to get beat a little bit before they realize what it takes to win a finals.

00:26I'm not accusing that of Luka Doncic, and I know that Kyrie Irving's been there before,

00:30so he doesn't fit this category.

00:32Is that a fair narrative?

00:34Is that a fair assessment that Luka's going to learn from this?

00:38And in a year or two or whatever, we're going to see him winning an NBA championship?

00:42Or is it an apples and oranges conversation?

00:44Feel free to tell me I'm completely wrong.

00:46It wouldn't be the first time.

00:48No, I don't think that's completely wrong.

00:51A lot of players have to go through failure in the NBA final stage.

00:55This Celtics team is a perfect example.

00:56This is a night and day team compared to when they were in the finals in 2022.

01:00They just look so much more ready and poised.

01:02And I do think that we will see Luka Doncic back at this stage at some point in his career.

01:07And we'll probably see him raise a Larry O'Brien trophy at some point in his career.

01:10But this is just one of those situations where, similar to the first time that LeBron was

01:15in the NBA finals, I'm not calling Luka a one-man show.

01:18Obviously, he has Kyrie.

01:19He has other guys that contributed throughout the playoffs.

01:21But he got swept by a very, very sound team.

01:24The San Antonio Spurs, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Miner Ginobili.

01:28And this is kind of a similar feeling.

01:29Like, Luka is, for as much criticism as he is getting on the defensive end, everything

01:34that he has done offensively to get them to this point, they would not be here without

01:38his contributions.

01:39And I do think that it's almost gotten lost that, going into the series, people are starting

01:42to wonder, is Luka Doncic the best player in the NBA?

01:45Obviously, the shortcomings on defense have come to the limelight in the NBA final stage

01:50against a very balanced Boston team that can attack you so many different ways.

01:54But he's an incredibly talented player.

01:55He's going to figure it out.

01:56He's going to get back to the stage.

01:58The thing that's interesting to me, though, is you have to be very specific about the

02:01type of team that you build around him because of his style of play and because of his defensive

02:06limitations.

02:07So, I'm curious to see where the Dallas Mavericks learn from their mistakes this time around

02:12and how they can put a more suited roster around Luka to be successful.