For the entirety of his five-year career, Austin Reaves has been a teammate of LeBron James on the Los Angeles Lakers. Reaves’ sixth year will be different, however, as for the first time, he won’t be sharing a locker room with the all-time great with James decideding to continue his playing career elsewhere next season.
Reaves has always spoken very highly of James as a player, person and teammate and praised him for all that he has done for his career. And the Lakers guard admitted that he still hasn’t fully processed the fact that James is no longer his teammate on this team.
“I don’t know if I’ve honestly processed it yet,” Reaves said during a recent media availability. “I kind of was thinking about it last night when I got here. Starting a season without him being on the team is gonna be different for me. That’s kind of all I’ve ever known is him being around, joking around acting like he’s 15. But that’s his decision and, like I said, any time I’ve talked about it, I’ve got nothing but love and respect for him. Yeah, let’s play some golf soon.”
As Reaves said, all he has ever known in his NBA career is James being around, setting the tone in the locker room and being his normal goofy self. But James felt it was time to move on from the Lakers and the franchise will now move forward with Reaves and superstar Luka Doncic leading the way.
Reaves signed his new four-year deal to remain with the Lakers this offseason and will be surrounded by a host of new teammates. Walker Kessler, Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton and Sandro Mamukelashvili all signed with the Lakers this summer as the team begins building a new foundation going forward.
But Reaves and James had developed a very close friendship over their five years together and there is just no replacing that. Reaves of course, will put his head down and get to work in trying to bring a championship back to this franchise, but it will be an adjustment on and off the court not having James alongside him.
Austin Reaves willing to embrace leadership role on new Lakers team
With all the moves this offseason Reaves is now the longest-tenured member of the Lakers and, for a while, was also the oldest player on the team. Doncic will be the player who sets the tone, but Reaves is also willing to embrace more of a leadership role with this new roster.
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