![\"Luka](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Luka-Doncic.jpg\")
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Luka Doncic is entering his first full season with the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n
All-Star guard Luka Doncic helped the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> reach the 2024 NBA Finals, solidifying his status as one of the best players of his generation. Yet, Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen does not envisage the Slovenian helping the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> ever compete for the Larry O\u2019Brien Trophy, citing his style of play.<\/p>\n In an interview with Marca<\/a>, Pippen stated that Doncic\u2019s 2024 NBA Finals accomplishment was a \u201cone-off feat\u201d and unlikely to happen again.<\/p>\n \u201cHis style of play took him to the Finals, but I\u2019m not sure he can do it again. It was a one-off feat, but when they got to the Finals, they didn\u2019t have much else,\u201d Pippen said.<\/p>\n En route to the 2024 NBA Finals, Doncic\u2019s Mavericks took down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s Oklahoma City Thunder, the 2025 NBA champions, Anthony Edwards\u2019 Minnesota Timberwolves, back-to-back Western Conference finalists, and Kawhi Leonard\u2019s Los Angeles Clippers. However, they fell to Jayson Tatum\u2019s Boston Celtics in just five games in a one-sided NBA Finals series.<\/p>\n Pippen Not a Fan of Euro Players?<\/p>\n In the same interview, Pippen made some unflattering remarks<\/a> about both Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic and Doncic, stressing that neither European star would have dominated the sport in the 1990s, citing their lack of athleticism.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if they could dominate,\u201d Pippen said of Jokic and Doncic.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the \u201880s and \u201890s we pressured full court. Could Jokic bring the ball up under that kind of pressure? I don\u2019t know. Of course, Jokic can see the floor and pass the ball very well, but I\u2019m not sure he would feel comfortable in situations where he had to bring the ball across the court under constant pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n Other Legends Have Doubted Luka Doncic<\/p>\n Pippen is not the first, and certainly not the last, to doubt Doncic\u2019s ability to win an NBA championship. Lakers legend Robert Horry, who won three titles with the Purple and Gold, sounded off the alarm bells<\/a> earlier this summer, suggesting that Doncic\u2019s weight loss means nothing if he doesn\u2019t commit himself on the defensive end.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t care about his weight,\u201d Horry told the \u201cDan Patrick Show\u201d about Doncic.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to get him in a gym and teach him how to play defense. That\u2019s the thing because you can give someone 40, but if you\u2019re giving up 35 on the other end, those 40 points don\u2019t mean anything.\u201d<\/p>\n In another interview, Horry explained why Doncic would never be in the same category as Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, or LeBron James due to his inability to excel on both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, Luka would never make that [top-5 players list],\u201d he said. \u201cI love Luka\u2019s game, but I\u2019m old school. You\u2019ve got to be able to play defense for me. I love Luka\u2019s game, but look at guys like MJ [Michael Jordan], Kobe [Bryant], [Hakeem] Olajuwon, [Tim] Duncan, LeBron [James], Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] \u2014 all these guys, to me, played on both ends of the court.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThink about Kobe and MJ \u2014 they were great on the defensive end. That\u2019s why they\u2019re considered the best of all time. Look at LeBron, who\u2019s great defensively. That\u2019s why you jump into that upper echelon, that Mt. Rushmore, when you can do it on both ends.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSai Mohan<\/a> covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sports writer with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit, International Business Times, Hindustan Times and more. More about Sai Mohan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Luka Doncic is entering his first full season with the Los Angeles Lakers. All-Star guard Luka Doncic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-174207","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}