Luka Doncic freely admitted this week that he’s not in the best shape just ahead of tipoff to the 2020-21 NBA season, but that doesn’t mean the Dallas Mavericks star is sweating the social media shade coming his way about it.
Speaking to reporters Monday, Doncic admitted he is well aware of how Twitter trolls have been calling him chunky and other derogatory terms. To the budding superstar, though, it’s all just outside noise.
“I mean, people on Twitter say every stuff,” Doncic said with a laugh, when I told him about the persistent remarks about his appearance, as relayed by Brad Townshend of The Dallas Morning News. “But, it’s true I’m not in my best shape. I will get there for sure.”
“But, you know, I’ve never been a muscular guy, so what can I say?”
There were whispers earlier this year that Doncic was horribly out of shape as the league languished for months in an indefinite hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The star’s trainer even admitted Doncic was “not in the best shape” as the NBA prepared to resume play at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla.
All that being said, Doncic is not — nor will he ever likely be — a chiseled, musclebound NBA player like the LeBron James of the league. It’s simply not his body style.
That has not stopped Doncic from not only being hailed as one of the NBA’s rising stars but already one of the league’s best players and a perennial MVP candidate.
The chatter surrounding his fitness level doesn’t appear to bother Doncic, and that’s all that should matter. Given he scored a team-high 27 points in Dallas’ 128-112 win on Monday night, it shows that Doncic can dominate even when he freely admits he’s not quite in game shape just yet.
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