Luka Doncic has a reputation among NBA insiders, and it will be difficult to change that.
That was according to Paul Pierce, who appeared on FS1’s “Undisputed” on Friday in response to comments from ESPN NBA insider Brian Windhorst, who said earlier this week that the Mavericks had “begged” Doncic to not complain too much about the refereeing.
“Sports is run by reputation, and the reason they say this to him is because he’s built a reputation and they don’t know if he can ever overturn it,” Pierce said.
“Once you build a reputation, it stays with you,” Draymond said. [Green] Being who he is, we’ll get to explore him a little more. Rasheed [Wallace] He was always the man he was when he played, and he was looked upon more harshly than usual. Allen Iverson was also a frequent complainer about the umpires.”
Pierce then gave a practical application of what this means.
“So now, I don’t know if he can change this or not, but people are looking at him and being like, ‘Oh, he’s an idiot,'” he said.
The Mavericks are currently trailing 3-0 to the Celtics in the best-of-seven NBA Finals.
Warning: Explicit language
Speaking with Scott Van Pelt on “SportsCenter” after Game 3 on Wednesday, Windhorst slammed Doncic.
“I thought it was perfect that with four minutes left and five fouls, Luka was on the ground in an unacceptable position,” Windhorst began, “and then he immediately looked at the bench and said, ‘We better challenge him,’ as if it was the bench’s fault that he played so badly.”
“I’m standing in the Mavericks tunnel right now. That’s the Celtics tunnel over there. Winners are in there. For Luka to come out of this tunnel a winner, he’s going to have to use what happened in the Finals as a learning experience.”
“His defensive performance is unacceptable. He’s a hole on the court.”
Doncic fouled out in the final minutes of the Mavericks’ Game 3 loss.
Windhorst also said that people around Doncic have been pleading with him to stop whining to the umpires.
“He’s got to get over this. The fact that he slammed the umpire after the game tells me he’s nowhere near recovered,” he said. “Someone will probably stand up to him over the summer because the Mavericks and nobody around him have been able to stand up to him.”
The Mavericks host the Celtics on Friday night in a win-or-lose Game 4.
