NBA News NBA News, Match Reports and Updates 
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.”
Advertisement
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.
Advertisement
“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.
Advertisement
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, 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…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/warriors-rookie-yaxel-lendeborg-doubles-down-on-jawing-with-luka-doncic-hes-not-michael-jordan-190346171.html
Author : Andy Backstrom
Publish date : 2026-10-24 19:03:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
