Former Mavericks coach drops heartbreaking Luka Doncic truth that'll never leave him

Until Luka Doncic humiliated the Dallas Mavericks by making an insane body transformation this offseason, the Mavericks' offseason had been going relatively well up to that point. With the NBA being in a slow news cycle in August, Doncic couldn't have picked a better time to do a media-revenge tour, though, as the entire spotlight in the NBA social media sphere is on how badly the Mavericks and Nico Harrison screwed up this trade once again.

Harrison made a bold bet that Doncic would never be able to maintain elite shape, and while this still technically needs to play out over the course of a season, it looks like Doncic will be coming into training camp in perhaps the best shape he's been in since his first or second season in the league. While a small portion of Dallas' fanbase may have been so invigorated at Doncic's inability to stay in shape that they are happy he's gone, most fans appreciate how talented of a basketball savant Doncic was, and know Harrison wasn't justified in trading him despite the circumstances.

However, former Mavericks assistant coach and fellow Slovenian countryman Marko Milic thinks Doncic will never be able to dodge unfair criticism over his playing weight as well as other things, as Milic recently gave insight into the sad reality that many of basketball's greatest players run into, that being that people focus more on their downfall compared to their triumph.

Milic thinks Doncic will never escape invalid criticism

"They will surely find something else even now, when he looks like a model," Milic said in regards to criticisms of Doncic in a recent interview with Fadeaway World.

Throughout the interview, Milic also brought up Nikola Jokic as a European player who is underappreciated because of the different type of play-style he and Doncic both play, as Milic thinks many American-born fans and media have a tendency to knock players with less athleticism because they aren't as flashy, even if players like Doncic or Jokic are some of the most technically sound athletes in the world in terms of their basketball IQ, stop-and-start movements, and their footwork.

While this bias certainly isn't true of all American fans, it's undoubtedly true amongst some of them, though almost every Mavericks fan would definitely vouch for Doncic's greatness, regardless if he is a top-flight athlete or not. Doncic is heading into what could be the best season of his career if he continues to stay in great shape, and the Mavericks and their upper brass are probably already shaking in their boots at the prospect of a super-charged Doncic destroying the Mavericks in three or four regular-season games next season.

If Doncic truly taps into his top form next season, Mavericks fans know all too well there's little opposing teams will be able to do to stop him, and criticism over his playing weight will certainly subside if he's durable and stays in decent shape next season. To Milic's point, though, Doncic will probably always have a small subsection of unjust critics and skeptics, even during his greatest moments, as some people are just pure sticklers and will continue to harp on certain star players just because they don't like something about them.

While this may be a grim outlook on the criticism Doncic could face throughout the rest of his career, as many Mavericks fans will continue to support him and follow him throughout his career, this is unfortunately the reality of the sports world, as star players across all leagues and times have been unfairly criticized for many different things.

The silver lining of this is that Doncic wouldn't be getting criticized by this many people if he weren't already as great as he is, though, as nobody would even mention his playing weight if he were an end-of-the-bench reserve, for instance, so these are some of the harsh consequences that unfortunately accompany greatness sometimes.