Luka Doncic has destroyed plenty of players during his time in the league, but there’s something about the particulars of this story that make it stand out.
As it turns out, earlier this season Doncic absolutely cooked then-teammate Grant Williams in practice, according to Mavs Vice President of Basketball Operations Michael Finley.
Here’s how he remembers what happened:
“One day in practice, a player on our team, I won’t call his name out, but it’s Grant Williams, he decided he wanted to get under Luka’s skin,” Finley said on 105.3 The Fan. “He felt Luka didn’t come that day ready to practice. To make a long story short, they had a scrimmage going and he was talking trash to Luka up and down the court. So finally, Luka says okay and Luka went on a 26-6 run by himself. You can ask anybody, I’m not exaggerating. He showed everything. The 3s, the post-ups, the floaters, everything by himself.
“Everybody on the sidelines, including the coaches, said do not poke the bear. That’s what everybody kept saying, do not poke the bear. We had guests in the gym at the time and they were on the sidelines oohing and ahhing. It was unbelievable. I was over there and the kid couldn’t miss. I’m not talking easy shots. He was showing the whole repertoire in this five or six-minute span. It was a 26-6 run by himself.”
The Mavs had buyer’s remorse with Williams almost immediately, trading him to Charlotte part-way through his first season with the team. Dallas shipped him out alongside Seth Curry and a 2027 first-round pick in exchange for P. J. Washington and two future second-round picks.
According to ESPN’s Tim McMahon, Williams rubbed a lot of people the wrong way in Dallas by constantly “yapping” and being out shape. And considering Williams wasn’t in shape, him questioning someone else’s readiness to compete at a high level (let alone the team’s best player) was unlikely to go down well.
Luka let his game do the talking on this one, and it turned out to best way to silence Williams.
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