Former NBA Star Tim Hardaway SR. Blasts Son’s Mavericks Teammates Luka Doncic & Kyrie Irving: “Missing a Leader”
The Dallas Mavericks locker room is about to get even more awkward.
The Mavericks are 8-16 since they acquired Kyrie Irving from the Nets in early February (7-13 in games in which Irving has played), and are now a half-game behind the Thunder for the 10th seed in the Western Conference and final spot in the postseason play-in round.
Tim Hardaway Sr., the former NBA All-Star and the father of Mavs guard Tim Hardaway Jr., went on “The Carton Show” on FS1 Wednesday morning and said that his son’s teammates lack leadership skills.
“They’re missing a leader out there,” Hardaway Sr. said.
“Luka is not a leader. Kyrie is not a leader. [For] me personally, that trade wasn’t for them. I think I would have kept what I had because I was in the fourth or fifth spot [in the Western Conference]. What is not broken does not need to be fixed.”
Hardaway Sr. also said Dallas misses the defensive tenacity of the players they shipped to the Nets in the deal.
“Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith were your defense anchors,” he said.
“They helped play defense, especially Dorian Finney-Smith. He was out there and he could switch [to cover] one through five.”
Irving has acknowledged that things have not been going as planned.
“What does our future look like?” Irving said last week after the team lost a game to the Sixers. “I think that now, again, just where we are in the season, and where other teams are positioned already, it kind of looks like a bit of a clusterf–k, to be honest with you.
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“Because we’re 37-40, and we’re trying to get into the play-in game. It’s not the expectations I don’t think any of us had in that locker room and me getting traded midseason.”
Since those remarks, the Mavericks have lost two consecutive games, to the Heat and Hawks.
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