Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic will be in action on Thursday morning as he and Slovenia kick off FIBA EuroBasket 2025 group play against Poland.
Doncic is in great shape heading into the tournament after transforming his body this offseason. He already looks ready to go for the 2025-26 season now that he has locked down his contract extension with the Lakers and gotten in great shape.
The focus for Doncic right now though is trying to lead his country to a medal in EuroBasket. That will be a tough challenge considering Slovenia lost all but one of its exhibition games.
In one of those games, Doncic went down with what appeared to be a knee injury. He ended up being OK, but there’s no doubt that people in the Lakers organization held their collective breaths at the time. Luka is the face of their franchise after signing his extension and him getting hurt while playing for someone other than the Lakers certainly would not be ideal.
Despite that though, the Lakers and general manager Rob Pelinka have continued to support Doncic representing his country, via Dan Woike of The Athletic:
“Zero problems,” Pelinka said. “I mean, it’s just something that we believe in for the Lakers organization.”
To show their support for Doncic, Pelinka and Lakers governor Jeanie Buss traveled to Poland ahead of Slovenia’s first game. Pelinka explained why that was so important for them to do:
“We just wanted to make a statement to Luka that we support what he does for his country. That’s really important to the Lakers when we have a player that’s the face of our franchise, just to show that support for him,” Pelinka said. “And it’s just great to see him with his teammates, interacting, having fun. As you said, he is in great shape, really committed to working hard this summer, and to be able to watch that in person was worth flying over the ocean to come be with him.”
The Lakers have always been an organization that treats superstars right, and they are making it a point to show that is still the case with Doncic. Even though Doncic didn’t choose the Lakers organization when he was traded there last year, it’s clear that they are doing everything in their power to make him feel at home.
Luka Doncic on representing Slovenia
Lakers star Luka Doncic recently explained why representing his country is so important to him.
“I always play for my country. Playing for my country, whenever I can, playing for my country is an honor for me. I try to bring medals to the country. But you know , just getting ready for the season obviously.”
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