Яксел Лендеборг Лука Дончичиг шүүмжилсэн байр сууриа дахин илэрхийллээ

Golden State Warriors rookie forward Yaxel Lendeborg has heard the backlash he’s received from NBA fans who disagreed with him going at Los Angeles Lakers superstar guard Luka Dončić during the teams’ season opener on Wednesday.

Some have harped on the viral clip of Dončić telling Lendeborg amid the 127-105 Lakers victory, “Hey, bro, you’re 24 and a rookie. Relax.”

Lendeborg dismissed that chatter, especially that belabored line.

“The 24-year-old rookie thing? I’m 24 in the NBA with the best job in the world,” Lendeborg told reporters Friday after the Warriors’ 111-108 defeat to the Memphis Grizzlies.

“Just moved my mom out to California. I’m living the dream.”

Lendeborg, who starred for a national title-winning Michigan team last season after playing JUCO ball and then turning more heads at UAB, explained that he’s always going to be himself because that’s the way he was raised.

In that same postgame interview, he also doubled down on his jawing with Dončić.

“He’s going to say what he want to say. I’m going to say what I want to say,” Lendeborg noted, via ESPN’s Anthony Slater. “I’m not afraid to talk to nobody, man. He’s not Michael Jordan. Come on now. It’s fun trash talk. I feel like I did kind of take it overboard in the media, but, I mean, it is what it is.”

Dončić isn’t Jordan; however, the 27-year-old Slovenian is an international icon. He’s a six-time All-NBA first teamer and a two-time league scoring champion.

That clearly doesn’t faze Lendeborg, whose unfiltered commentary added to his intrigue during his meteoric rise at Michigan.

Lendeborg said he told Dončić ‘he sucks’

In Wednesday’s season opener, Lendeborg didn’t back down from the challenge of guarding Dončić. Even though Dončić piled up 23 first-half points that night, only two of those came against Lendeborg, according to ESPN tracking, which had Dončić shooting 0 of 4 from the field with Lendeborg as his primary defender in the halfcourt over the opening two quarters.

Lendeborg and Dončić went back and forth throughout the contest, trading jabs amid the verbal sparring.

Notably, Lendeborg was assessed a technical foul, just before Dončić banked in a buzzer-beating prayer at the end of the first half.

After the game, Lendeborg said he told Dončić “he sucks.” Lendeborg also said that he “lost all respect” for Dončić after seeing firsthand how Dončić plays.

Lendeborg put Dončić on blast for “complaining” over the course of the game. Dončić conveyed postgame that the chirping took his performance to another level.

Warriors are on board with Lendeborg’s bravado

While some in the basketball world have taken issue with Lendeborg’s brazen approach, he’s received backing from his teammates and head coach Steve Kerr in recent days.

Kerr actually said on Thursday that he loves it.

“But Steph [Curry] had the perfect comment,” Kerr said, via Luca Evans of the San Francisco Chronicle. “He loved it, too, but he said, ‘Now you got to back it up.’ And that’s right. The way you back it up is to not get lured into that next week when we play them again or against somebody else who’s doing that.

“You’d much rather rein a guy in than have to kick him in the butt. And, so, I love Yaxel’s competitiveness. He’s shown that he’s going to be a headache for [Warriors senior vice president of communications] Raymond Ridder all year because he’s willing to say anything. But I want guys to be themselves as long as they’re using that wisely to help us win basketball games.”

Kerr did admit, though, was that Lendeborg’s Wednesday night comments “became too individual.”

“It’s still about the team, and we got our ass kicked,” Kerr said on Thursday, via Evans. “So it should be about us giving up 127 points. It doesn’t matter what Luka shot against him or what the individual matchup was. We gave up 127, and we have to be better.”

Draymond Green, long one of the most outspoken players in the NBA, unsurprisingly has lauded his new Warriors teammate for the way he handled the testy night against Dončić.

“I respect the hell out of Yaxel for willing to stand toe-to-toe,” Green said on his podcast this week.

“If you can’t rock with a guy like that, who compete like that, who willing to fight like that, you’re probably a loser. Because if you can’t get behind that, all the people are going, ‘Oh man, he shouldn’t be talking.’ Why shouldn’t he? That’s like this old adage of like, ‘Oh, you’re a rookie, you don’t talk.’ F*** that. Why wouldn’t I talk? The guy you criticize is the guy that does that and then tuck his tail and run. That’s the guy who should be criticized, not the guy who do it, stand 10 toes on it and continues to go forward.”

Lendeborg offers tame remarks about latest showdown with Grizzlies’ Cameron Boozer

Even though Lendeborg reinforced his stance toward Dončić on Friday, his postgame media session with reporters in the locker room showcased an additional side of the authentic, do-it-all forward.

Following his latest head-to-head with draft classmate Cameron Boozer, whom Lendeborg lost to last season while Boozer was at Duke and then beat in July to win an NBA Summer League title, Lendeborg gave credit where credit was due.

“He played a great game today,” Lendeborg said of Boozer, via Slater. “We both were on the bad end with the turnovers, but we both [got our] first double-doubles. … First career double-doubles for both of us. It was a fun matchup. Didn’t really get to guard each other much. He took advantage of his matchup when I was on him. Did a great job.”

Lendeborg was the 11th overall pick in this year’s draft. Boozer went eight picks before him at No. 3 overall.

Lendeborg expressed after winning that summer league championship that he thinks about revenge every time he plays Boozer. On Friday, Lendeborg maintained that he looks for an edge against his draft classmates, except he freely acknowledged that Boozer outperformed him that day.