Close to Luka Doncic, with whom he played at Real Madrid, then at the Dallas Mavericks, Salah Mejri is a big fan of the Slovenian, whom he considers as a friend… but also as the “best basketball player in the world”.
“I try to watch all the Dallas games” explains to El Mundo Deportivo the Tunisianon the one who asked to sit next to him in the Texan locker room. “The Mavs need to find the root of the problem because, for me, they have the best player in the world in Luka. And he must win. The minimum, for him, is to reach the conference final, failing to win the title.
Salah Mejri also says that Luka Doncic, who arrived in the NBA after having won everything in Europe with Real Madrid, had difficulty getting used to the numerous defeats of his rookie season (33 victories – 49 defeats).
“In my opinion, pairing Luka and Kyrie is a bit strange. They both need the ball, and you can’t have two balls on the field.”
“When we lost a lot, he wasn’t happy. He had just won everything with Madrid (Spanish and Euroleague champion, with MVP trophies in both championships and at the Final Four), he was used to victories. It was difficult for him to understand that defeats happen more often in the NBA, especially at the beginning. »
Unfortunately for Luka Doncic, Dallas tasted numerous defeats again last year, after having reached the conference final just before. And the arrival of Kyrie Irving during the trade deadline was a failure at the end of the season, even if the Mavericks think it was the supporting cast that was the problem.
For his part, Salah Mejri, however, has a hard time imagining this duo succeeding.
“In my opinion, pairing Luka and Kyrie is a bit strange. They both need the ball, and you can’t have two balls on the field. They are both too good with the ball to play without it. Some remember that Irving played next to LeBron James, but it was LeBron who could play without the ball. You can’t take the ball away from Luka, he wouldn’t be himself. I think it’s a bit the same thing with Irving. It will be interesting to see what solution Jason Kidd comes up with.” concludes the retiree…
