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Pro wrestling legend Ric Flair didn’t mince words when it came to Luka Doncic’s absence from the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night.
The Lakers fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of their second-round series, 108-90. Doncic missed the first round of the playoffs with a hamstring injury. Los Angeles has seen Austin Reaves return to the lineup in the recent series. He played 36 minutes against the Thunder, but scored just eight points.
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Ric Flair lets out his trademark “WOOO” at his final match press conference at the Fairgrounds in Nashville, Tenn., on June 23, 2022. (Abbey Cutrer / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Flair wrote on X that Doncic needed to get back in the game and that he hoped the Lakers would decide to trade him.
“Luka, please get in the game! Take a shot of cortisone and deal with the pain! They pay you 50 million a year and you’re not there! WTF! I hope @JeanieBuss trades you next year. Nobody wants a lame duck on their team!” Flair wrote in his rant.
Flair made it clear in an interview with Pakinomist Digital in 2023 that he watches all sports – not just what goes on in professional wrestling.
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Lakers guard Luka Doncic greets Rockets forward Jeff Green after game six of the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Toyota Center in Houston, Texas on May 1, 2026. (Erik Williams/Imagn Images)
In particular, he found players resting due to “load management” abhorrent.
“These basketball players whining and b—-, it’s taken a lot of the sport away from me,” he said at the time.
Flair contrasted wrestling through his own injuries to NBA players sitting out injuries that he felt they should be able to play through.
“They go to work hurt,” Flair said of pro wrestlers at the time. “That’s what scares me today about these basketball players stubbing their toe. No s—. How do you think I feel knowing I was fighting six months after I broke my back in a f—ing plane crash? ‘I got a torn thumbnail. Whoa, whoa, whoa.’
Lakers players Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves chat while sitting on the bench during the second half of Game 1 of the first round of the NBA playoffs against the Rockets at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California on April 20, 2026. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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In any case, Doncic’s hamstring injury cost him the final five games of the regular season and each of the Lakers’ playoff games.
