The Los Angeles Lakers’ brass has spoken about how much they support superstar guard Luka Doncic in everything that he does, but recently they put action behind those words. Governor Jeanie Buss and general manager Rob Pelinka actually traveled to Poland where Doncic is taking part in FIBA EuroBasket 2025, leading his native Slovenia.
The Lakers have always been a franchise that considers their players to be family and treats them as such. While many franchises say things like this, few are willing to go these lengths, but that is what makes the Lakers so different and what continually attracts the biggest superstars to Los Angeles.
The importance of this act was not lost on Doncic as he was very appreciative of Pelinka and Buss flying all the way out to Poland just to support him, via Dan Woike of The Athletic:
“It means a lot,” he said. “It’s a long flight. I think it’s like 11, 12 hours, so it means a lot for them just to be here to support me.”
The majority of the focus and attention goes to the on-court things and rightfully so. Building the right roster and making those necessary moves is primarily how a front office is judged. But really building a relationship and trust with your star players is extremely important and things like this are what truly makes the Lakers one of the most special franchises in all of sports.
Anyone can say they support their players taking part in these international tournaments, but it is different when the highest ranking officials in the organization travel across the world just to show their support. Doncic has been open about his feelings when initially traded to the Lakers and that is understandable, but the Lakers have done everything in their power to show him how much they value him and he is experiencing firsthand what it means to be a part of the Lakers family.
Rob Pelinka explains why Lakers support Luka Doncic playing in EuroBasket
For his part, Rob Pelinka also spoke about the Lakers supporting Luka Doncic taking part in EuroBasket despite the obvious injury risks, which nearly came to fruition, but thankfully Luka avoided major injury.
The Lakers general manager made it clear they don’t have a problem with Doncic representing his country and were happy to travel to support him in person.
“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.”
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