HALLELUKA: Luka Clinches All-NBA 1st team. 4th in 5 years

[KillerLeft]

Well it has happened. Yesterday afternoon I heard Rick Kamla on NBA radio let loose on Luka. The nationwide love fest now has a ding. He criticized the ref call complaints and something else. He said he loved him etc. for several reasons but....and off he went. His partner, an ex Coach followed with the benefits of staying away from negativity but did mention he felt the media gave Luka a pass on his defense when it didn't for other stars.

Of course, in other threads, we started it. Sounds like once again, the media sometimes listens to us. Apparently they don't listen well enough to actually know much, but they use our stuff. I predict next they use the Mavs Luvr thread to spread the "fact" of dissension in the Mavs locker room. They will probably choose not to notice that Luka is really doing somewhat better on the defensive end this year. When he is not playing 5 of 7 days, he does moderately well on defense when compared to other offensive stars.

So, the thing about NBA and sports media is that there are some who consume the product at a rate much crazier than we do, watching LITERALLY every game and having really informed opinions, while there are others who only see the nationally televised matchups and then make big claims that aren't backed by enough knowledge. I have no idea which of those Rick Kamla is (not sure I know his work) but determining which type you're dealing with is a key to enjoying the off-court part of the sport, imo.

TBH, Luka DOES deserve some criticism for the situation with the refs, imo. If he played for another team we'd HATE him, based on the fact that he begs for calls CONSTANTLY. It's one of the reasons I hate Harden, for sure. We hated Tim Duncan around here for years because of "palms up Timmy" every time he committed a foul. 

I do think he's improved defensively, but unfortunately, he's slow and white, so the sad truth is that it's going to take the simple minded AWHILE to figure that out. And, in all fairness, I'm not sure this season's nationally televised games have been the best examples of his improved defense. He'll need to be consistent about it. It's not like anyone is comparing him to Trae Young on that end, and I doubt they ever will. For me, it's enough that WE see that Luka is dedicated to improving on defense. I don't need the national guys to be early adopters of that truth. They'll figure it out in 4-5 years when the Mavs are one of the 2-3 best teams in the league.