Luka Dončić's revenge muscles, plus Nikola Jokić’s horse celebration

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Chances are, if we have an in-person basketball conversation, I will steer it toward Ricky Davis, Jamal Crawford or Ronald Flip Murray at some point.

Today is Flips 46th birthday.

He was a walking bucket.

There is a dearth of career highlight mixes on YouTube for him, but let this be a great entry to a fun rabbit hole .

Happy birthday, Flip! Luka got shredded, LeBron is masterminding It would make sense if, after two-plus decades of LeBron James being a main figure (or the main figure) in NBA discourse (whether genuine or forced for ratings/clicks), one might be a little LeBrond out at this point.

At the same time, I find my LeBron fascination rejuvenated because of the awkwardness we see between him and the Lakers .

James is entering his 23rd year in the NBA, and the Lakers have moved on to the Luka Doncic era after trading for the latter last season.

The 26-year-old superstar gives the franchise a massive runway to work with, while the 40-year-old superstar is trying to figure out how to position himself to finish his career.

And it doesnt seem like that will be with the Lakers, based on this offseason so far.

Advertisement The Lakers seemingly ended up with Luka because Mavericks executive Nico Harrison did not believe Luka was committed to being in the proper shape to fit into the execs ideal basketball identity.

Following a nagging calf injury and perhaps deciding to jump in the gym with extra care for a little revenge body glow-up (weve all been there after a breakup), Doncic now finds himself looking completely shredded and muscular on the cover of Mens Health magazine.

Yup, thats Luka Doncic on the cover of Mens Health Mag [image or embed] The Athletic ( @theathletic.com ) July 28, 2025 at 10:36 AM Normally, the best shape of his career stuff is just preseason fodder and entirely laughable.

But Ill fully admit this shot of Luka not only made me do a double take, it made me drop to the ground and ran off 25 straight push-ups.

(Then that was it.

I figured thats enough to be in shape without committing myself in any other way.) Lukas new muscle definition could further demonstrate what a disaster Harrisons move was.

Mavericks fans probably went through the anger of the trade all over again, when this cover hit social media this week.

It shows Lukas dedication to either being in proper shape to win a title or to pettiness to damn Nico forever or maybe both! Regardless, Luka is the now and the future for the Lakers, assuming he extends his contract once hes eligible next month.

And LeBron is someone making one-third of the salary while helping make this team good enough to be a playoff squad in the vaunted West, but not good enough to be a real title contender.

That is, unless Deandre Ayton decides to dedicate himself in a manner we havent really seen in his seven years so far.

Its no surprise that LeBron might be looking for one last hurrah, and we know that James has a penchant for garnering attention when it feels like he wont be the story anymore.

Weve seen injuries pop up after hes been eliminated, as we find out he was playing through them.

Weve seen him flirt with the dot-connectors by throwing out something cryptic for the internet to decode.

Or maybe, in this case, someone decided to do it for him.

Misko Raznatovic posted a picture of himself, LeBron and longtime James friend and business partner Maverick Carter enjoying the boating life in Saint Tropez, France.

The caption? Advertisement The summer of 2025 is the perfect time to make big plans for the fall of 2026! He tagged LeBron and Mav in the pic.

Youre likely asking yourself, Who cares? Who is this Misko fellow anyway? He just happens to be Nikola Jokics agent.

Hey, guess who is going to be a free agent in 2026? LeBron! Thats when his current deal that pays him $52.6 million is over.

Film noir! What a twist! As my friend Aaron perfectly stated about LeBron: He is the loudest at going quiet .

While so many are LeBrond out at this point, watching how he chooses to finish the story of his career will be as fascinating as anything hes done since returning to Cleveland in 2014.

If not more.

The newly shredded Luka is the Lakers focus, and rightfully so.

How LeBron turns the league focus back to himself despite not being the focus of his own team is going to be a 4D chess-type of situation.

Only one team better than Knicks? Fresh start.

Damian Lillard has returned to Portland.

He sounds like a new man .

New deal.

The Bulls just agreed to a contract extension with coach Billy Donovan.

Hes 195-205 with one playoff win in five seasons there .

Power Rankings! The league has shifted a bit this offseason.

Are the Knicks the second-best team in the NBA ? Size matters.

The Mavs are banking on their size to dominate opponents.

Can a two-big lineup fuel them ? NBA Daily.

Zena and Es are joined by Mike Vorkunov to discuss expansions, relocations and NBA Europe.

YouTube here .

Caring more about horse races than NBA titles Speaking of Jokic, one of the funnier running jokes on the internet is about how much the four-time MVP (counting the Finals MVP) seems to be bothered by his day job.

To be clear, I firmly believe Jokic loves basketball.

I do not believe you can become that historically great at this sport without having a passion to fuel your work.

However, I question whether he likes/enjoys the NBA itself .

So much of the pomp and circumstance of the NBA just doesnt seem to vibe with what he appears to be about, from the outside looking in.

We know Jokic does have passions outside of basketball, though.

Its been known for years how much Jokic obsesses over, invests in and enjoys horse racing.

Over the weekend, Jokic made more internet memes/headlines by celebrating one of his horses winning a race in his home country of Serbia.

Video showed Jokic being elated and emotional after the win.

He enthusiastically popped a massive champagne bottle, sprayed his team, sprayed the horse a little and dumped the rest on himself.

You can see how excited he is in the moment he pops the bottle and starts spraying.

You can watch the entire emotional reaction from Jokic here .

Now juxtapose that enthusiastic celebration with how Jokic celebrated the Nuggets winning the championship in 2023.

Look at how he popped the bottle in the locker room, and didnt appear to even really go through the motions of spraying that champagne on his teammates: The difference between two years and two different celebrations is stark, to say the least.

Remember: When asked about winning the 2023 NBA championship, immediately after securing it, Jokics response was, The job is done.

We can go home now.

He was perturbed that the championship parade was days away because he wanted to go back to Serbia.

Jokic embodied the accidentally became important at work and its ruining my life meme.

Its just good to see the big fella enjoy stuff outside of work.

He has like two more months before he has to clock in again.

Who is signing Giddey and Kuminga? Most everything from this NBA offseason has been resolved, unless we have a massive trade thats going to slap us in the face and challenge us to a duel out of nowhere.

Aside from figuring out where Russell Westbrook might end up, were basically just waiting to see how the big restricted free agents are going to resolve their contract negotiations.

The big restricted guys left are Josh Giddey, Jonathan Kuminga, Cam Thomas and Quentin Grimes.

Advertisement At this point, nobody really expects these players to end up in new places.

Maybe Kuminga can find his way out of Golden State? There just arent a lot of avenues this summer for that.

Thomas has been pretty outspoken about how hes viewed the negotiation process, fair or unfair.

The perception is the perception.

Some people value him, and some people dont.

Such is life in the NBA.

Grimes is someone everybody expects Philadelphia to re-sign in some manner.

We just dont know if some of these players will take the risk and accept the one-year qualifying offer to bet on themselves for unrestricted free agency in 2026.

Or will they accept a longer-term deal to ensure financial stability? Kuminga might be the most intriguing situation with that potential approach.

Fred Katz polled 16 rival front office people, and the average annual take-home salary for Kuminga was $20.4 million.

The majority of the contract lengths for Kuminga would be three years.

Kuminga appears to be wanting a four-year deal, roughly in the $25 million annual zone and more importantly, off the Warriors, to explore expanding his role elsewhere.

Kuminga and coach Steve Kerr havent exactly meshed.

In another poll of front office personnel, Giddeys prospects were seen as something youd rather invest in.

His annual average was roughly $22.3 million.

But 10 of the 16 executives polled said he should get a four- or five-year deal.

Giddey had the best season of his young career, putting up 14.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game.

But the career bests in 3-point percentage (37.8, previously 33.7) and true shooting percentage (57.0, previously 54.7) show why the intrigue and trust might be there more.

Regardless, it feels like Giddey will eventually get his commitment from the Bulls, while were not sure what is in store for Kuminga, Thomas and Grimes for long-term money or place of business.

Maybe the qualifying-offer gamble ($7.9M for Kuminga, $6M for Thomas, $8.7M for Grimes) is worth the risk after all? Streaming links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic.

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