Ric Flair Addresses His Beef With Luka Doncic Amid Lakers Playoff Run

For several weeks, professional wrestling legend Ric Flair has expressed issues with the Los Angeles Lakers‘ Luka Doncic amid the team’s NBA Playoffs run.

In early April, Luka suffered a left Grade 2 hamstring strain against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and that has kept him on the sidelines for weeks, including the Lakers’ first two playoff series.

The team advanced past their first-round opponents, the Houston Rockets, who were without their superstar Kevin Durant for most of the series.

However, Los Angeles, led by LeBron James in Luka’s absence, is now facing a 3-0 series deficit against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round.

And from afar, “The Nature Boy” has criticized Luka for not manning up and getting on the court to help out his squad during this postseason losing streak.

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He’s fired off several messages on his X account, calling out the Lakers star who has been watching his team from the bench throughout the postseason.

Asked why he’s being “so hard on Luka,” Flair explained that he’s a massive Lakers fan, and doesn’t know the “extent” of Luka’s injury situation, but did something similar to the San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback several years ago, telling him, “get back in the game, man.”

“I’ve taken a cortisone shot and wrestled with a broken ankle, so I don’t have much sympathy for the hamstring,” he told Yahoo! Sports Daily recently.

“But I know that they protect their future, and I don’t blame them for that. They got guaranteed money. I knew George Mikan. I’ve been a Laker fan that long,” Flair said.

However, Flair didn’t have any answer for what the Lakers needed to do in Game 4, which is a must-win situation for Los Angeles.

Along with that, Flair called out sports analyst Skip Bayless for recently saying LeBron is the No. 9 NBA player of all-time and contended that King James might be the “greatest athlete of all time.”

Most likely, the wrestling legend was having some fun on social media to grab attention and rile up fans. Luka isn’t one to respond to that sort of thing, and didn’t recover from his injury.

The MVP contender indicated he was frustrated with not being able to play and help his team, but it was outside of his control as he recovered from the hamstring strain.

Unfortunately, there hasn’t been a clear timetable for his return, and at this point, it doesn’t seem like he’ll be part of this postseason, given how close the Lakers are to elimination. Winning has been tough against OKC, and winning the series seems impossible at this point.

Heading into Monday night’s contest, the Lakers were again massive underdogs, even at home, with the odds suggesting Oklahoma City could win by as many as 13 points to finish the series and advance to the Western Conference Finals.

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This story was originally published May 11, 2026 at 6:27 PM.