LUKA DONCIC MIGHT GO NUTS, BUT THE MAVERICKS ARE IN THE WEST FINALS

With the help of Kyrie Irving, who refused the COVID-19 vaccine and was suspended for antisemitism, Doncic is surviving his absurd run-ins with referees and rolling up triple-doubles despite injuries

     The night he scored 73 points came only hours after he was told, by a fan, to “get your ass on the treadmill.” How cruel. These are the rival thoughts when gauging Luka Doncic, the antithesis between his flair as an all-time player and his farce as one who can’t keep his body chiseled and won’t stop screaming at the referees.

     He says he adores the game. “Just focus on basketball. Remember the thing I love, the thing I love to do. Just play basketball,” he said. He also hates the grind. Only 25, he cannot stay healthy, bothered by a sprained right knee and an aching left ankle, which some in the stands equate to being overburdened by weight. It’s impossible to stay in the best shape when he’s always hurt, and yet, he’s hurt because he can’t stay in the best shape. This leads to his chronic attacks on officials, which come so often through cringey looks that you want to change the TV channel.

     So, sometime soon, Doncic might want to establish who he is and what he intends to accomplish. Is he the badass who averages the second-highest point total in the NBA postseason — behind Michael Jordan? Or a muffin who loses before the Finals?

     The day has arrived. He and Kyrie Irving — “Kai,” he calls him — have led the Dallas Mavericks to the Western Conference finals, where they’ll have days off after a Game 6 triumph over Oklahoma City. No one thinks they’ll win if the Denver Nuggets, assuming they succeed tonight, are playing like champions. But if the Nuggets advance and have more ghastly nights that force Nikola Jokic to stand behind the baseline, staring at his teammates? Who knows? Aren’t these the weirdo playoffs where Doncic thrives and Irving possibly returns against his loathed Boston Celtics? They’ve bonded curiously, from different places in animation, and Irving refers to him as “mi hermano.”

     Saturday night, Luka was one more hellshot at ref Tony Brothers from being ejected. As usual, he whined and shrieked and waved his arms, gesturing through the air at any juncture. When the Mavericks were en route to completing a 17-point comeback, he literally prayed at Brothers to hear his rant. Many officials would have tossed him, even in Dallas, where Mark Cuban sits by the bench and complains himself.

     But Doncic survived, somehow, finding P.J. Washington in the corner. Acquired at the trade deadline, the forward was fouled by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on a three-point try and made two free throws, for a wild 117-116 victory. Why did he foul? He shouldn’t have, as he said afterward, saying he should have let Washington “miss the shot.” Point being: Doncic made the big pass instead of taking the shot. “It wasn’t Luka or Kai making the game-winner,” coach Jason Kidd said. “It was the trust of Luka and the ball touches the paint, they collapse, he trusted P.J. We find a way to win.”

     As he pranced around American Airlines Center, Doncic looked like a large wrestler, wearing all black in his No. 77, from jersey to shorts to socks to shoes. “Big hearts!” he said. “It’s amazing. I think we just stay together as a team.” More importantly, he finds himself fortified by Irving, which seems far beyond any sports synergy. Though Doncic needs to locate peace or he’ll fall short of championships, there were moments in the series when he chilled.

     Crazily enough, the same Kyrie who has groaned about everything on a planet that he claims isn’t round — let’s see, he was suspended for antisemitic conspiracy theories on social media, and missed dozens of games while refusing the COVID-19 vaccine — has tried to teach Doncic how to act. If you noticed in Game 5, he didn’t always voice his rage to the refs. “I talked to them normal without complaining — nothing,” Doncic said. “I think it was the whole game — nothing. So I just go out there and hoop. Have fun, have fun. It was the old Luka — a smile on my face.”

     A certain “mi hermano” was thrilled to detect progress. “He was superb. When he’s putting his energy in the right places, we’re a better team,” Irving said. “When he goes beyond his threshold and he’s not able to control emotions, that’s when he has to rely on us as teammates. Just continuing to affirm him that he’s doing the right things and we want him to stay aggressive on both ends of the floor. Easier said than done, but emotions and trust, they go hand in hand when we’re playing out there.”

     We’ve talked about LeBron James in Dallas. Who knew Krazy Kyrie was the trick for Luka to ignore the calls? “I think he found a healthy balance,” Irving said.  “I think he can learn from this so we flourish as a team. I’m not going to sit up here and complain about him when you get on the refs, like the refs are perfect. I got to give my brother a little benefit of the doubt.”

     Until the refs became a Mavericks problem.

     They aren’t at the moment.

     “He's human. He's not a robot,” Kidd said. “Sometimes we just pencil in that Luka is going to put in 30, 10 and 10. You know, the playoffs are hard mentally and physically. Before the game, understand you are not going to get any calls on the road. You got to understand. You got to play through it.”

     The clincher came at home, where a young Phoenix fan unloaded on Doncic in late January. “Luka, you’re tired! Get your ass on the treadmill,” he said, as a female friend laughed. Doncic approached security and asked that the fan be ejected. When the media inquired, he was upset.

     “Because he was cursing me the whole first half too,” he said.

     “Why didn’t you ask for him to be ejected in the first half, then?” a reporter asked.

     “Because I never would eject a fan. They pay for tickets. But I had enough, you know. It’s a little bit of frustration,” Doncic said.

     “You turned your head and looked over at him after he said that. I mean, that’s what we saw,” a reporter said.

     “Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll be the bad guy in the media, right?” Doncic said.

     Two nights later, in Atlanta, he scored 73 points. It came on the anniversary of Kobe Bryant’s death. Nine more points, and Luka would have overcome Kobe’s 81. Only Wilt Chamberlain has scored more, with 100. “Those names are special,” Doncic said. “It's unbelievable.” Suddenly, no one cared about the punk kid in Dallas.

     “He is the game plan. Some say they are a system, he is the game plan," Kidd said that night. “His ability to make shots, create shots, find open guys, he did that at a high level. I have said this before: We can't take him for granted. Every night is special. He always does something. Sometimes we are a little bit tough on him because of the wins and losses, but what he does on the court is different than anybody else.”

     In Game 5, Doncic had 31 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists and returned home to play his other favorite game, online chess. In Game 6, he went for 29, 10 and 10 while finally dispatching Luguentz Dort and other defenders from the young Thunder. He is only the fifth player ever to carry three straight playoff triple-doubles. “This team is special,” he said. “We've only been together for what, a few months, and I’m having a lot of fun.” Luka and Kyrie, of all people, are the league’s new musical taste.

     Said Kidd: “We don’t see a perception in the past. We only see the present. When we got him, people didn’t think he’d fit with Luka. That changed quickly and it’s a beautiful thing what he’s doing. I know Kai better than most. We all have our own opinions. He’s worldly, which is a beautiful thing. Sometimes that scares people.”

     At present, he is unnerving opponents. “Just the preparation and the moment, I’m trying not to be so emotional,” Irving said. “All the pain and all the sacrifices — it’s just our moment.”

     If he can coax Luka Doncic to manage triple-doubles, while avoiding ejections, then he is more homey than we ever thought.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.