Luka Doncic has made it extremely clear that his reason for living is to deliver the Los Angeles Lakers an NBA championship as soon as possible. He took out an ad in Wednesday's edition of the Los Angeles Times to state that Wednesday's regular-season opener for the team was the start of a march toward a championship, and in that ad, he implored fans to pledge their full support toward that lofty goal.
On the court during Wednesday's game versus the Golden State Warriors, he continued to deliver that message with his actions. He scored 23 points in the first half, including a bank shot from just beyond halftime to beat the first-half horn, and that was the impetus behind the Lakers' 127-105 victory.
Along the way, he delivered lots of trash talk toward Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg, who often tried to guard him. After the game, he reminded people that it is unwise to, pardon the cliché, poke the bear.
"Everybody knows when somebody starts talking, you get a different me," Doncic said. "So that was it."
In the postgame presser, he said Lendeborg "was talking crazy" and that he was trying to not talk too much trash in order to avoid picking up a technical foul. Last season, Doncic had 16 technical fouls, which resulted in an automatic one-game suspension in late March.
Lendeborg said after Wednesday's game that he got a bad impression of Doncic.
"I had a lot of respect for him," he said. "... But then being in there firsthand, just watching all the whining and complaining, I lost all respect. That was awful."
Welcome to the NBA, rookie. Keep in mind that Doncic is one NBA player one cannot get away with talking to during a game.
This article originally appeared on Lakers Wire: Luka Doncic on trash-talking Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg