Kyrie Irving versus Celtics fans won’t be the only rivalry in the 2024 NBA Finals.
According to former Mavericks player Chandler Parsons, there’s a “real feud” between Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis, who played together as running mates for many years in Dallas.
“It’s going to be more violent. To Boston’s Kyrie IrvingAbsolutely, but don’t get me wrong, they don’t like Porzingis in Dallas. “It’s a big deal,” Parsons said on Monday’s “Run It Back.”.
“Luka didn’t like playing with him. There’s a real feud there. He’s going to get booed every time he touches the ball.”
The Mavericks acquired Porzingis from the Knicks during the 2019 season in an attempt to give Doncic a legitimate playing partner, but the pair never quite lived up to expectations.
During Porzingis’ two full seasons with Dallas, the team lost in the first round of the playoffs each time, finishing as the seventh and fifth seeds.
Porzingis averaged 20.1 and 20.4 points per year over those two seasons, but injuries again limited him to just 100 games over those two seasons.
He only appeared in three of six games against the Clippers in the 2020 playoffs and averaged just 13.1 points in the Clippers’ seven-game loss in the 2021 playoffs.
Dallas opted to move midway through the 2021-22 season, sending Porzingis to the Wizards in exchange for rotation players Davis Bertans and Spencer Dinwiddie.
Porzingis acknowledged that he and Doncic could have worked better together in 2022.
“Absolutely, absolutely. Me and Luka were both young guys. There were situations where we should have talked to each other. We should have talked to each other in the room. And then we had those conversations and we were a lot more open with each other,” Porzingis said on “The Woj Pod.” Transcribed by Duluth Morning News“But looking back now, obviously, we made some mistakes along the way, but yeah, (Jason) Kidd came in and it was a breath of fresh air, a fresh atmosphere and that helped.
“At the end of the day, sometimes things don’t go as expected, and that’s OK. I learned a lot from that situation. I learned a lot in New York, and I wish nothing but success for both organizations.”
Doncic finished fourth and sixth in MVP voting during his two full seasons with Porzingis, but the Mavericks have had more success as a team since trading the Latvian forward.
Parsons’ co-hosts Michelle Beadle and Lou Williams said they were unaware of any alleged issues between the two, but Parsons, who played for the Mavericks for two seasons from 2014-2016, said he believed it was a known situation.
He assured Mavericks fans would give him a rousing welcome at the American Airlines Center as long as Porzingis plays in the series.
Porzingis has missed Game 4 of the first round due to a strained left calf. Tweeted on May 29th Google Translate says he’ll be back soon.
“It didn’t work out,” Parsons said. “Dallas fans are proud, no matter what the reason, and when you get hurt, when you don’t play, when you don’t do the things you did years before you came to the Mavs, they don’t like it.”
He added: “Like Lue said, Porzingis is not Kyrie Irving so it’s not Kyrie’s fault, but here’s the situation. … Both players are definitely motivated. It’s definitely going to be a tough game for Kyrie Irving in Boston, but Porzingis is going to get booed every time he touches the ball.”
