Star NBA players are going to get scrutinized and criticized for their performances, behaviors and attitudes. It's part of the superstar life... just ask Kyrie Irving, Joel Embiid or LeBron James about how they've dealt with it throughout their careers. And usually, if the hate on said player is believed to be unwarranted trash talk, someone will jump to his defense.
In this case, it was Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, a superstar in his own right, defending his budding MVP candidate Luka Doncic after some comments made my one of the most well-respected basketball writers around.
"[Doncic] has become one of the biggest whiners in the league," Lowe said. "It's become constant."
How did Cuban respond to these whining allegations? He politely and respectfully disagreed, using an "I" statement to consider Lowe's point of view before offering his reasoning as to where Lowe is wrong.
Or not. Warning: NSFW.
"I'll tell you exactly what I think. F--k you, Zach Lowe. You don't know s--t," Cuban said on VICE TV's "Cari & Jemele Won't Stick to Sports" this week. "I know Luka, right, and it's just he's not a big whiner. He's passionate. He cares, he wants to win. He's got some s--t to him... but no, he's not a whiner. He's a baller."
Wow! We're lucky we don't see that version of Cuban on "Shark Tank" or there would be a significantly higher amount of crying wannabe entrepreneurs leaving the stage.
Whether or not Doncic is, in fact, more of a "whiner" than others around the league is hard to say. But it's not hard to see why Cuban would rush to his defense, considering the 21-year-old is the heart and soul of the Mavericks and is averaging 27.2 points, 8.8 rebounds and 9.4 assists per game in what has been seen as a slightly slow start for him — for instance, he's shooting 29.6 percent from beyond the arc.
Another superstar from the 2018 NBA Draft class, who will always be paired in discussions with Doncic, has also received his fair share of criticism to this point in the season, though we haven't seen any multi-billionaires come to his rescue yet.
Related
LISTEN NOW on the RADIO.COM App
Follow RADIO.COM Sports
Twitter | Facebook I Instagram