A few Dallas Mavericks players have been vying to represent their country in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, even as the NBA Summer League gets underway in Las Vegas today. Currently playing for team Canada, Dwight Powell made headlines the other day when he locked up Joel Embiid during Canada’s game against Team USA. Superstar Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks was competing in the pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament as well, but he was sadly disqualified from playing because the Slovenian National Team lost to Greece in the tournament’s semifinals by a landslide score of 98-68.
Doncic had a really poor game for Slovenia in their defeat. Although he finished with 10 turnovers in the game, he was rather effective with 21 points on 7–14 shooting from the field. Doncic never looked like his usual self during Olympic qualifying games, indicating that he was still clearly limited by the numerous ailments he was battling with during the NBA Playoffs.
Mavericks and Luka Doncic escape a bullet as Slovenia withdraws from the Olympics
As much pride as Doncic takes in representing his country, there is a fine line between overdoing it out of pride and receiving the necessary care and rest for injuries that would have prevented Doncic from playing if it were the regular season. For these reasons, many Mavericks fans are relieved that Doncic’s Olympic run is coming to an end.
The Mavericks and President of Basketball Operations Nico Harrison have expressed their support for Doncic playing for his country, but given the severity of his injuries and the fact that he only played 92 games the previous season, it’s reasonable to argue that Doncic ought to have tried to wait until the Olympics to play, even though it’s obvious he’s still in a lot of pain.
Doncic’s fierce rivalry is a perfect quality for a superstar player, but moving forward, the Mavericks and Doncic might need to exercise more caution in these circumstances given the enormous workload he has carried in his first six NBA seasons in addition to playing for his country almost every summer since moving to Dallas.
The Mavericks have clearly avoided a bullet here, as Doncic could have made his injuries worse had Slovenia advanced further in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament. However, Mavericks supporters can now celebrate that Doncic will at least get some rest before the start of the upcoming season.
Hopefully the Mavericks learned a lesson from these Olympic qualifying games, given how rough Doncic appeared on the court. If the Mavericks are unable to make concessions to Doncic in situations like these moving forward, this could easily become a more destructive scenario if Doncic suffers a career-altering injury at any point. Keep checking back because we’ll have more on Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks this offseason.
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