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LUKA DONCIC AND Dennis Smith Jr. had become fast friends after the Dallas Mavericks selected the teenager from Slovenia third overall in the 2018 NBA draft.

Smith, whom the team had drafted ninth a year prior, had shown Doncic around the city and invited the new guy into his social circle. They lived in the same apartment building and had spent hours playing video games together.

If one was spotted during a Mavs road trip, chances are the other would be there too, along with young swingman Dorian Finney-Smith.

The Mavs were quick to market their new guard tandem. Doncic and Smith posed together during media day, smiling for pictures; they were promoted heavily on the team's website. Along with soon-to-retire legend Dirk Nowitzki, the young lottery picks were the players featured on billboards around the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.

While a friendship blossomed in Dallas' newly formed backcourt, coach Rick Carlisle and the front office were planning to blow it up, sources involved with the franchise's decision-making said, never really believing the duo had staying power.

The Mavs knew Doncic would need to be the primary ball handler to fulfill his immense potential, and they didn't believe Smith, who they had determined was a high-usage, ball-dominant guard with a suspect jumper, could complement him.

Carlisle, for his part, doubted Smith could be a productive NBA starter, team sources said. He had wanted the Mavs to draft guard Donovan Mitchell, and had completely soured on Smith midway through his rookie campaign.

Seven months later, Smith was traded to the New York Knicks, an afterthought in a deal that brought Kristaps Porzingis midway through Doncic's rookie season.

It might not have been a basketball fit, but Doncic and Smith had formed a bond. And Carlisle's apparent determination to make Smith miserable during their brief time as teammates was appalling to Doncic, several former players and staffers told ESPN.

Multiple players were shocked during one early-season team meeting when Carlisle accused Smith of being jealous of Doncic, sources said. The players considered it incredibly unfair to Smith, who wasn't playing well but was making an honest effort to mesh with Doncic on the court.

Doncic particularly resented what he perceived as Carlisle's attempt to pit him against his friend and teammate, team sources said.

It's an early chapter in the Luka Doncic story, an origin point for rising distrust and tension between the team's young star and his coach -- and an indication the relationship would have an expiration date.

"He brought a championship to Dallas," Doncic said after a win in Memphis on Dec. 8, "and everybody respects him."

Those are the most extensive comments Doncic, who declined to be interviewed for this story, has made about Carlisle since the coach's resignation from Dallas in June. Carlisle, now the Indiana Pacers' coach, missed Friday's Mavericks-Pacers game after testing positive for COVID-19.

New coach Jason Kidd and the Mavericks are 27 games into an effort to clear three seasons worth of dysfunction, disillusionment and blowups that cracked the foundation of a franchise built around a superstar who has yet to win a playoff series.

"It wasn't really about how Rick treated Luka," a Mavs player on the 2018-19 team said. "Luka hated how Rick treated other people."

FORMER MAVS CENTER Salah Mejri, a player whose fiery emotions often weren't appreciated by referees, picked up two quick technical fouls in the third quarter of a January 2018 win against the Washington Wizards. The second tech was a particularly quick whistle, and Mejri pleaded his case to Carlisle before leaving the court.

"You've got two f---ing points, get the f--- out of here!" Carlisle shouted at Mejri, pointing toward the tunnel to the locker room, an exchange caught by television cameras.

After practice the next day, Carlisle told reporters he had a talk with Mejri and "apologized to him for behavior that was really emotional, uncalled for and unprofessional on my part."

But people with the team didn't consider the behavior to be uncharacteristic for Carlisle. Several Mavericks team staffers, from members of the coaching staff to non-basketball employees, told ESPN they felt intimidated and disrespected by Carlisle, who they said could be abrasive and demanding. The coach also had contentious relationships with several Mavs players throughout his 13-year tenure.

Mejri felt belittled by Carlisle, a team source said, believing the coach targeted him with unnecessarily harsh criticism -- usually in front of the team.

And Mejri functioned as a big-brother figure for Doncic. Mejri had played for Real Madrid before signing with the Mavs in 2015. He looked out for Doncic when he was promoted to the Spanish club's top team as an adolescent. Doncic was so close with Mejri that he agreed to an interview with a local television station as a rookie on the condition that Mejri, a fringe rotation player, would also be part of the sit-down.

The public exchange between Carlisle and Mejri happened the season before Doncic was drafted, but it was indicative of the tense Mavs' locker room when he arrived.

Early in Doncic's rookie season, the players were in near mutiny in the wake of an especially heated, confrontational team meeting, players and members of that staff said. Carlisle apologized to the team a couple of days later and gave assistant coach Jamahl Mosley, who was popular with the players, increased responsibilities regarding the managing of player and coaching staff relationships. It was Mosley's voice that the players often heard from the coaching staff, sometimes more so than Carlisle's.

Mosley developed an especially close bond with Doncic. But over the next few years Carlisle came to consider Mosley a threat, team sources said, believing that Mosley was attempting to position himself to take Carlisle's job. Instead, Mosley became the coach of the Orlando Magic in July, a couple of weeks after the Mavs hired Kidd.

 

Barea, a role player on the 2011 title team and a leader in the locker room even as his playing time decreased, helped bring Doncic and Porzingis together, playing cards with them on the team plane and facilitating communication between the franchise cornerstones.

That relationship began to erode last season, when the awkwardness that developed between them was so apparent that it was noteworthy when they exchanged high fives. Sources noted that Carlisle wasn't positioned to manage it because he had poor relationships with both.

Porzingis was frustrated, feeling he was a strategic afterthought for a team that couldn't get out of the first round, often utilized primarily as a catch-and-shoot 3-point threat to space the floor for Doncic. That was spotlighted during the Mavs' seven-game playoff loss to the LA Clippers, when the 7-foot-3 Porzingis spent most of the series spotted up in the corner because Carlisle was convinced he was incapable of punishing LA's switching defense with post-ups.

As he entered the offseason, Porzingis was so disillusioned, sources said, that he privately hoped he would be traded.

 

DALLAS' ORIGINAL PLAN was for Carlisle to return for the 2021-22 season, but it had become clear the coach would have been on the hot seat from the start.

After last season's opening-round Game 7 loss, there were legitimate questions about Carlisle's job security. For the first time, people in the organization weren't sure Carlisle would be back, and Mark Cuban's lukewarm vote of confidence shortly after the final buzzer confirmed the coach was on shaky ground.

"Let me tell you how I look at coaching," Cuban told ESPN that day, after Doncic had 46 points and 14 assists, but the Mavs were blown out inside Staples Center. "You don't make a change to make a change. Unless you have someone that you know is much, much, much better, the grass is rarely greener on the other side."

Carlisle had intended to travel to Doncic's native country several days later in June to observe the Slovenian national team's camp and spend time with the Mavs' star. Those plans, however, were canceled at Doncic's request, sources said. Doncic, particularly in the wake of Cuban firing longtime Mavs president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson, wanted no distractions as he prepared for the qualifying tournament in which Slovenia clinched the program's first Olympic bid.

Carlisle, who had two seasons remaining on his contract, broached the subject of an extension with Cuban around that time, sources said. Cuban shot down the idea, confirming Carlisle's suspicion his job status was tenuous.

Later that week, the winningest coach in franchise history informed Cuban he was resigning.

Doncic, who hasn't yet exercised his superstar privilege of influencing personnel decisions, never called for Carlisle to go, sources said. He ultimately didn't have to.

Porzingis has felt refreshed after Carlisle's resignation, team sources said. Kidd has made a point of giving Porzingis the green light to take the kind of shots Carlisle wanted to eliminate from his arsenal.

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dilar

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Dončića želimo imeti zraven že junija, ko bosta v Sloveniji v sklopu kvalifikacij za svetovno prvenstvo 2023 gostovali Hrvaška in Švedska, zagotovo pa avgusta in septembra za evropsko prvenstvo. Letos je Luka po reprezentančnih obveznostih v Litvi in Tokiu prišel nazaj v ZDA dobro pripravljen.

Matej Erjavec, predsednik KZS-ja

 

Lol :D

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Galko

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LeBron reče pred 9 minutami:

Isiah Thomas v Lakerse. :happy: Kaj pravite?

 

Meni je škoda, da nima tako moškega imena kot ga ima njegov starejši soimenjak, ki mu je uradno ime

 

Isiah Lord Thomas III

 

To bi pa kar padel Lakers dres IMO

 

 

Bo pa tudi ta ta mladi kar ok, vidim da bo čez dober mesec star 34 in torej zelo lepo paše v letošno Lakers narativo :D :D

uredilo bitje Galko
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Morski

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Zgodba z Zionom je res kisla. Pričakovanja so bila novi LeBron, nov obraz lige. Dobilo se je nekoga, ki ima že zelo mlad ogromne težave s težo (razen če hoče izsilit prestop iz nezanimivega mesta) in je zaradi poškodb verjetno že zaključil all star kariero. Pa dobro, ni ne prvi ne zadnji. 

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