Kristaps Porzingis reveals why playing for Mavs with Luka Doncic was a disaster

During the 2018-19 NBA season, the Dallas Mavericks made headlines as they made a blockbuster trade with the New York Knicks for big man Kristaps Porzingis.

This was Luka Doncic's first year in the NBA, and Dallas looked to build their duo of the future with the two European stars. Despite massive expectations for the team, Dallas didn't do much during Porzingis' time with the team.

They never made it past the first round of the playoffs, and Porzingis always seemed to be battling injuries as he only played in 134 regular season games as a Mav.

Kristaps Porzingis reveals why playing for Mavs with Luka Doncic was a disaster

With the Doncic-Porzingis duo's struggles, it seems that fans tried to pick sides of whose fault it was that the duo never worked. Some fans point to Porzingis and some point to Doncic. It's obvious to see that both players could have done things better, and Porzingis recently gave fans a glimpse into what went wrong in Dallas on JJ Redick's podcast, The Old Man and the Three.

Redick asked Porzingis if there was a "young bull" type of dynamic between him and Doncic, and he didn't hold back when talking about what their relationship as teammates looked like.

Porzingis agreed with Redick that it was a "young bull" type of dynamic "early on for sure" but stated that "we both tried to make it work." He also said that the lack of communication and maturity among the two of them wasn't the best.

One segment of this clip that shows just how poor their relationship could have been is when Redick talks about the story that happened in a game where Dallas was playing the Memphis Grizzlies. Redick said that Doncic was frustrated about something from the game, head coach Rick Carlisle pulled him out, and Doncic reacted negatively.

Doncic went and sat away from the team, and Carlisle told the team to "stop being babies." Porzingis then responded to Carlisle by asking him, "why don't you tell Luka to stop being a baby?"

This story shows one of the rough patches that they had as teammates, and although frustration is normal, it was clear that this duo wasn't going to work and wasn't a great fit.

Both players' egos got in the way, and they were never able to reach the success that everyone thought would follow after Dallas made the trade for him. There were likely some other scenarios similar to this one during Porzingis' time in Dallas as there were stories that he and Doncic didn't like each other, and the team was seemingly only big enough for one of them.

Porzingis' run in Dallas ended when they traded him to the Washington Wizards during the 2021-22 season. Later that season, Dallas made the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2011.

For all the latest on Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks this season, stay tuned.