Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic is widely known as one of the best trash talkers in the NBA.
Ever since he came into the league, Doncic has been one to talk trash often. He isn’t always the one to start it, but if someone starts talking trash to him, you can guarantee that he’ll talk back. Doncic fears no one, and that was evident in Sunday night’s win over the Orlando Magic as he finished with 32 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists.
Doncic needed a bounce-back performance after going through an early-season shooting slump over the first few games, and the Magic’s trash talk helped unlock a new beast.
Any time that Doncic plays against Moritz Wagner, you know that the trash talk is going to follow. These two are known for going at it whenever they match up against each other, and that continued on Sunday night. Doncic got the best of Wagner as he led the Mavs to victory and had a much more efficient game than Wagner did off the Magic bench, and Doncic talked about the ongoing battle with some of Orlando’s players in his postgame press conference.
“I heard them talking in German, so I said some things in German,” Doncic said.
The Magic have three players who are German with Moritz and Franz Wagner along with Tristan Da Silva, and Doncic said once he heard them talking in their native language, he chimed in. Doncic said he took five years of German in school growing up, and there are no limits to his trash talk, even if it is in a different language.
Doncic hilariously refrained from telling the media what words he was saying in German, but he said to “ask Maxi” as Maxi Kleber is his German teammate who was born in the same town as Dirk Nowitzki (Wurzburg). He also went on to compliment the potential and future of German basketball, and the vibes from him were great when talking about the competitive fun of the game.
After the game, Mavs fans were buzzing about this trash-talk story retold by Doncic, and many fans had no idea that he could speak German. It’s widely known among Mavs fans that he can speak English, Spanish, and Slovenian, but it was news to many that he knows some German as well.
Doncic’s trash talk often helps get him into the zone, and if someone on the other team frustrates him, it’s typically over for the other team. His passion and competitiveness often help lead him to big games when he is going at it with another player, and in moderation, it is another one of the many tools that he can use to break down the other team.
As long as Doncic’s competitiveness and drive don’t always lead to technical fouls, Dallas will be golden. He already leads the league with technical fouls with three after being begged by his teammates to limit complaining to referees during the playoffs, and this is one area that he must control to be the best version of himself.
If Doncic can learn to take out his frustration on the other team rather than the officials, the Mavs will be in a much better spot.
