Did ESPN First Take disrespect Luka Dončić?

For five consecutive years now prominent ESPN NBA commentators have disregarded lightly Luka Dončić’s abilities and impact on the basketball court. The network’s flagship show ESPN First Take in particular has been reluctant to accept the Slovenian as the best player in the league.

One of the most featured sports analysts on ESPN First Take Stephen A Smith (SAS) reached the point of ridiculousness, that according to many viewers that saw the show, only recently when stating on national television that Jalen Brunson from New York Knicks should have been voted a First Team All-NBA ahead of Luka Dončić for the 2023-24 NBA season. SAS, among many others in the American media, has a history of dismissive comments regarding both the 3-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and Luka Dončić. So, we were hardly surprised when viewers label more and more often some of the sports analysts ESPN First Take chooses to feature people with xenophobic sentiment against these two players from Europe who dazzle in the NBA in a strange and foreign way for many.  

What is xenophobia?

Let’s start first with an explanation of exactly what the word xenophobic means. Here is the dictionary definition: Xenophobia is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange.

This is a personal state of mind mostly related to people who have firm beliefs and refuse to embrace new trends. It has nothing to do with racism, we must be clear on that! Some people fear others just because of their strange ways and nothing else. For example when a basketball player uses his own pace and refuses to be rushed by anyone, while still displaying historic levels of greatness. 

ESPN First Take on Luka Dončić: What was said on 05/24/2024?

For many basketball analysts and experts, it’s perplexing and puzzling as to why a player like Luka Dončić, who puts the numbers he puts over the last five years and keeps getting better with each passing season, is yet to win an NBA MVP award. 

Some of that is directly contributed according to many who follow the NBA closely to the constant narrative coming out from otherwise very enjoyable and pleasant to-watch shows like ESPN First Take. For multiple years now the numbers and displays Luka Dončić puts up on a basketball court seem to matter little as to how he is perceived. The famous Stephen A Smith has never found it in himself to vote for Luka Dončić as his league’s NBA MVP in any of these years. The lack of recognition shown by SAS towards Swaggy L reached new levels during the First Take show broadcasted on 05/25/2024.  

Luka Dončić – pronunciation lesson

For us, after so many years of displaying excellence in the NBA, it is unacceptable to keep hearing prominent commentators and analysts disrespecting Luka Dončić by struggling to pronounce his name properly. Kendrick Perkins, another sports analyst for ESPN First Take, rarely pronounces Luka Dončić’s name correctly. Stephen A Smith, the leading sports analyst for the same show, keeps mispronouncing Luka’s surname too.

Let us help a bit. For everyone that wants to mention the Cool Hand here is his name and its pronunciation – Luka Dončić Pronunciation:\LOO-kuh DON-chitch\.

What did SAS say about Luka Dončić and Jalen Brunson?

During the 05/24/2024 ESPN First Take avid Knicks fan Stephen A Smith seems to have displayed a lack of respect towards Luka Dončić’s historic season by stating that Jalen Brunson should have been voted First Team All-NBA instead of El Matador.

.@stephenasmith believes Jalen Brunson should’ve made first-team All-NBA over Luka 👀 pic.twitter.com/YMXfXMz7mB

— First Take (@FirstTake) May 24, 2024

There is no logical reason to even consider that possibility, especially, since in the eyes of many not giving Luka Dončić the NBA MVP this year was close to sacrilege. During the 2023-24 NBA regular season The Don led the NBA in scoring (33.9 points per game), nearly averaged a triple-double for the regular season (33.9 pts / 9.8 ast / 9.2 reb), shot his best-ever 3P% percentage (38.2%), scored 73 points in a single game with an unseen before in NBA history shooting efficiency, had the best defensive stats of his career, and had a PIE (player impact estimate) of 57.1 with the only player in the entire history of the NBA to have higher PIE for an entire regular season being the legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar way back in 1971-72. 

To add to all that the Cool Hand and Jalen Brunson played together on the same team until recently. As good as Brunson is – possibly the best player in the Eastern Conference this regular season in terms of individual impact – he was Luka Dončić’s Robin during his time at Dallas. You can’t say that team wins come into consideration here too as both the Knicks and the Mavs had identical records of 50-32, with Dallas reaching 50 Ws in the much tougher Western Conference. 

So, for SAS to pick Brunson over Luka in a season in which the latter had an all-time historic number is beyond puzzling for many viewers and this is where old comments about xenophobia and such stuff surfaced again. Our main excuse for SAS is that he is an avid Knicks fan. However, the inability to embrace Luka Dončić and Nikola Jokic as the new faces of the NBA from SAS and many others makes some wonder if is there any xenophobic sentiment to all that too. Especially, when a likeable player of great promise but without much success or stats to back his case yet like Anthony Edwards keeps being mentioned ahead of them as the new face of the NBA.

Is ESPN First Take xenophobic against Luka Dončić – our opinion

We’ll start first with our view on xenophobia. For good or for bad we believe every person on this planet is xenophobic to some extent and on some level. We’re not talking about the very negative meaning given to this word in recent decades, but it’s actual meaning that a person could fear/dislike strange and foreign things. It’s human nature to fear things we don’t understand or like, it’s part of our survival instinct. Also, everyone is free to dislike whatever they want. 

Now in regards to ESPN First Take and its sports analysts, we don’t believe that SAS, or anyone else, is xenophobic towards Luka Dončić. Everyone has the right to an opinion, so it happens that some of the sports analysts don’t like the style of play displayed by Luka. That’s fine and perfectly within their right to say so! 

Still, all that said no other player has maintained that level of greatness and has kept improving year after year for a period of five consecutive seasons while getting so little recognition. That’s why it will be nice if Stephen A Smith and everyone else who is simply not sold on the style of play Luka Dončić uses simply come forward and say so. There’s no shame in not liking a certain player or style for that very reason. By doing so any toxic comments regarding xenophobia that keep bubbling close to the surface, unjustifiably in our opinion, will sink back into the deep darkness where their place is in the first place. 

As for Luka Dončić, we don’t think we need to say anything in his defense regarding his First Team All-NBA selection. His stats keep speaking for themselves. Of all the NBA stars involved in these playoffs, The Matador has achieved five triple doubles already (this at the time of writing), while there had been only five more playoff triple doubles combined between every other player involved in this post-season!