“No hustle, no attitude” – LeSean Mccoy dubs Luka Doncic as ‘worst All-Star’ ever for lackadaisical defense in NBA Finals
Luka Doncic might have filled up the statsheet in his NBA Finals debut, but according to running back-turned-analyst LeSean McCoy, his performance in the Finals showed that he was the “worst All-Star” due to his lackluster defense.
In his first NBA Finals, Luka Doncic averaged 29.2 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game, all the highest in the Finals, while shooting 47.2% from the field. His Dallas Mavericks lost to the Boston Celtics in five games.
However, McCoy, who had a 12-season NFL career, pointed out Doncic’s evident lack of effort on defense.
“Luka is the worst All-Star I’ve ever seen in my life,” McCoy said. “He can score the ball, he can pass the ball, he can rebound and all that. [But] he has no effort on defense. He doesn’t want to play defense. He doesn’t hustle for any loose balls, and he doesn’t hustle for loose rebounds.”
McCoy also said it would be detrimental for children to watch Doncic’s tapes to avoid emulating the Dallas star’s lackadaisical effort.
“He has no sense of urgency in playing solid basketball, and I will not let my son, who wants to be a basketball player, watch his tape. I don’t want him to learn from a superstar like that. No hustle. No attitude. No care. Crazy,” he said.
Luka Doncic on playing hurt: “I didn’t do enough.”
Luka Doncic dealt with injuries throughout his team’s run to the NBA Finals and frequently appeared on injury reports due to a knee sprain, sore ankle and thoracic contusion.
He received pain-killing injections in two games in the series, according to ESPN, and was often seen with blood on his knee.
However, he said that being hurt was not an excuse since he was out there on the floor.
“It doesn’t matter if I was hurt, how much I was hurt, I was out there,” Doncic said. “I tried to play, but I didn’t do enough.”
Doncic, although the best player for the Mavericks in his first NBA Finals, significantly struggled with his 3-point shooting.
During the regular season, Doncic averaged 33.9 points, 9.8 assists and 9.2 rebounds while shooting 38.2% from beyond the arc. However, in the Finals, he managed to shoot only 24.4% from 3-point range.
In the last three games, he went just 3-for-24 from beyond the arc and averaged only 5.6 assists per game in the Finals, his lowest average ever for a playoff series.
