[Zach Lowe] “Luka’s got a fire lit under his ass. You doubt me because of my conditioning, injury? I will show you and get in the best shape of my life. You could be critical of Luka or You could be critical of the Mavs for not being able to after all the yrs together to coax him in this direction”

44 comments

  2. Love that Zach Lowe can talk to Tim Cato instead of McMahon for mavs stuff now

  4. Or the Mavs could say “only a trade that significant and embarrassing would motivate him and he wouldn’t have ever done it for us”

  5. I really don’t buy that there was anything the Mavs could have said to get Luka to get into this shape for them. It really took breakup vibes.

    Now, it was still insane to trade Luka especially for the haul they got.

  6. Public Shaming can be the biggest motivator – Luka’s never been under that level of trolling from the entire basketball media before.

  8. This feels like an overblown talking point. Yes you can obviously criticize Luka for his conditioning and weight at times but he had his best season in 23-24 where he was fit but by no means skinny

    The trade was still absolutely awful considering the return was an aging AD.

  9. idgaf if luka is a lazy bum for not getting in shape, hes still a top 5 player and the mavs are fucking stupid for trading him. this attempt to justify the trade because luka was fat is absurd.

  14. Possibly hot take. Mark Cuban was the worst owner Luka could have had coming into the league. Cuban bought a team to be cool and hang out with players. When your owner is drinking with players the night before the game its hard to establish a culture.

  16. This whole thing is hilarious, they are taking a victory lap because Luka is doing the bare minimum of not being fat as a max salary athlete lmao.

  17. is that guy really saying that if luka gets injured for a week that he will get fat again… can we just stop with these idiotic takes wtf

  19. *He could’ve been smoking cigarettes bringing the ball up the f*cking court and I would still be like, ‘When can we sign you to the supermax?’”*

  20. This is an insane debate… it was a horrible trade and it’s becoming. More and more obvious to they weren’t able to read Luka as a human…. Which isn’t easy but it’s really important when you have a star of that caliber 

  23. “Fat” Luka put up 34/9/10 playing with bums for half the season and had the best scoring game in modern basketball, taking efficiency into consideration.

    He could be eating cheeseburgers after each quarter and he’d still be a top 5 player for the better half of the next decade, at worst.

  27. Im still betting on him twisting an ankle and getting fat again. Luka has come back skinny before, only to get fat within a couple weeks

  28. Love Zach but can we please tone it down with the victory laps? It’s absolutely ridiculous. We’re talking about a Men’s Health cover. A publication that routinely (and even in this case) publishes anti-scientific drivel for gullible readers obsessed with conforming to unrealistic standards of beauty. This is the equivalent of getting excited for Ben Simmons shooting threes videos. Let at least the season begin before waxing poetics. If he will turn all of this into being as good as he always has been + more well conditioned, less of a non factor in defence etc etc… then we can talk about a fire being lit under his ass. Until then this is all PR

  29. prolonged and sustained fat shaming works, even if none of us want to admit it.

  30. Luka can eat all the brisket he wants if that meant he was a Mav rn idgaf. Getting Cooper after that warcrime of a trade still feels dirty to me.

  31. I think it’s fun that this just confirmed he wasn’t taking his conditioning as seriously as he could have been and it literally took a trade for him to do so. Still a terrible trade that treated the human being involved terribly but Luka did have his part to play in it getting to that point.

  35. Luke is going to have to be in the best shape of his life if he’s going to put LeBron in a backpack and carry him to another title.

  36. I think it’s in some sense a natural maturation process for a wunderkind baller. He was a star without crazy conditioning, but the margin for error in the NBA is so slight and between his injury, conditioning, and the league knowing his tendencies, he suddenly wasn’t as dominant. So now he adjusts and levels up.

  37. The macho headgames of the Mavs’ exec—mostly Nico and Nico’s yes-men—completely cratered the trust of Luka. Luka’s shape did not assist with his injury re-/aggravations, but he was simultaneously demanded to carry an entire franchise (which he absolutely did) whilst not being surrounded by a support system that could get through to him for his singular issue as a professional athlete (his shape). Luka is worth nine figures in on-court performance and off-court fame, I don’t care if the Mavs needed to invest eight figures exhausting every option to regain the trust he lost in their health staff—you do it. I feel an MVP season coming from Luka.

  38. I’m a lil nervous for next season, there’s gonna be so much to get re-accustomed to, his shot probably going to feel completely different, post game can’t rely on bullying and backing down smaller defenders as much, even passing going to affected. Lets hope his rookie years aren’t far enough away that he can’t tap back into old instincts without struggling too much. It’s definitely going to pay off long term though.

  40. Bro Luka is the only other player besides MJ who averages 30ppg in thr playoffs. And he does that while regularly playing 65+ games every year. I dont care if he is chugging milkshakes every time out as long as he is doing that stuff for my team he is untouchable.

    Is this guy seriously questioning Luka’s ability to “finish seasons” when he just took a 4th and 5th seeded team to the WCF and the Finals in in the last 4 years? Maybe he looks tired bc hes out of shape or maybe he gets tired from having to either score or assist every single point for his team while matching up against every teams best defenders.

  43. Luka deleted Facebook and hit the gym. Bigger question is can he maintain this fire beyond this year?

  44. He made the finals. He was motivated. What is this rewriting? I know Lowe mentions it but seriously why does it seem like people treat Luka like Zion Williamson?

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