Former Dallas Mavericks executive Haralabos “Bob” Voulgaris has made shocking comments about then-Mavericks star point guard Luka Doncic. BolaVip reported that Voulgaris, 49, has revealed some insights into the overall dynamics in the Mavericks’ organization during Doncic’s tenure from 2018 to 2025. Doncic was selected with the third overall pick in the first round of the 2018 NBA Draft.
Former Dallas Mavericks Executive’s Allegations
Voulgaris is a Greek-Canadian professional poker player who competes in the World Series of Poker, World Poker Tour, and European Poker Tour and is a principal owner of the Spanish soccer club CD Castellon. However, he previously served as a director of quantitative research and development for the Mavericks. He served three years before an article was published about conflicts that arose in the Mavericks’ front office involving him.
Voulgaris began working in Dallas in 2018, the same year that Doncic joined the Mavericks out of Real Madrid, and reportedly gained insight into the team’s internal work and Doncic’s attitude. Voulgaris’ address to the public began with, “He doesn’t take his conditioning seriously, he doesn’t take his diet seriously … This is all true… But it’s like, great, you can correct these things.”
Executive’s Perspective
Voulgaris didn’t stop with Doncic’s lack of conditioning. Voulgaris shined a light on the former Dallas star’s terrifying effect on the Dallas Mavericks’ organization by bluntly saying, “Every person who worked at the Mavericks, except for me, was terrified of this guy … (They) wanted to kiss his (expletive) while he was there so they could secure their future.”
Voulgaris’ perspective might be right. The Los Angeles Lakers reportedly expected to get more from Doncic, but he hasn’t delivered enough during his early tenure with the team. His rustiness and lack of a full-strength status have been showing amid his rocky start in Los Angeles. Doncic and the Lakers lost to the lackluster Charlotte Hornets, 100-97, on Wednesday night to start the second half of the 2024-25 NBA season.
Voulgaris’ Story
In the same interview, Voulgaris recalled an interesting story about Doncic’s first season with the Mavericks from 2018 to 2019. Voulgaris gave the public a glimpse of Doncic’s questionable eating habits when he said, “He was wearing a sauna jacket while playing basketball to lose weight.” Dallas owner Mark [Cuban] would comment to me like, ‘Yeah, we got Luka in a sauna jacket because he’s a little overweight.'”
Voulgaris continued, “So I’m at the end of practice; a restaurant caters the practice, and they bring out this giant like Gatorade-style things. Inside, there’s one sweet tea and one lemonade. I see this guy (Doncic) filling up this giant [thermo]. I was like, ‘What the (expletive) is that? [Cuban], I know nothing about nothing but I know that liquid calories are death.’ And Mark is like, ‘Stay in your lane, you don’t know what you’re talking about, we got experts in this.’ And I was like, ‘I can’t believe how crazy this is, what am I doing here?'”
Voulgaris concluded his story with a recollection to the best of his ability, “Two days later the sweet tea was removed and one of the players, I can’t remember who it was, joked like, ‘Gambler Bob is the reason why the sweet tea and the lemonade are not here anymore.’ And he may or may not got upset, I don’t know, but that was my first interaction.”
