The Luka Doncic commerce to the Los Angeles Lakers in February surprised the NBA world, and much more so, it surprised Luka himself.
Staff proprietor Jeanie Buss now says the celebrity’s response was not like something she has ever seen.
“No person knew the commerce was going to occur,” Buss informed Radio 1 throughout a cease on her EuroBasket journey to look at Doncic play for Slovenia within the 2025 summer time competitors. “I knew, however he didn’t know. I’ve by no means had a participant come to the Lakers and be as unhappy as he was, as a result of the commerce was such an enormous shock to him.”
Buss defined that the 26-year-old wanted time to return to phrases with leaving Dallas, the one NBA house he had identified (to not point out his solely house within the USA after being drafted / traded there in 2018).
“He’s an actual particular person, and he needed to course of what occurred,” Buss stated. “[However,] I believe now he’s embraced the Lakers – and he’s all about L.A.”
Buss additionally pointed to a deeper connection between Doncic and the Lakers, one tied to the late Kobe Bryant.
“The final time I noticed Kobe Bryant alive, he introduced his daughter Gianna to the Lakers recreation to see Luka play, as a result of Luka was Gianna’s favourite participant,” Buss stated. “In order that they have at all times been linked not directly, and I knew that if the chance to have any person like Luka on the Lakers, then it could all work out.”
The deal that introduced Doncic to Los Angeles has been described as probably the most surprising in league historical past.
Whereas critics in Dallas pointed to questions on Doncic’s conditioning and long-term sturdiness, the Lakers have labored exhausting this offseason to focus on his rejuvenated kind. EuroBasket, the place Doncic is as soon as once more main Slovenia, supplies the proper stage to showcase that.
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