The Los Angeles Lakers shocked the basketball world by trading for superstar guard Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks. Just a season ago, Doncic led the Mavericks past Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves to their first NBA Finals appearance in more than a decade, and now he is in the purple and gold.
Everyone from fans, media members and players were absolutely floored when the report came out that the Lakers had acquired Doncic with many making their feelings known. The always open and honest Edwards recently posted his thoughts on the deal to his Instagram and feels Doncic could be motivated by the negative stories that have come out since the trade:
“Man, it’s crazy. He just took them to the Finals. He beat me and took his team to the Finals. I’d just feel so tried that like, if they say I couldn’t do this, I go, you know what I’m saying. Whatever they saying about me, I’m gonna change the whole storyline, the whole campaign, it’s gonna be my campaign. He just took y’all to the Finals.”
Questions about Doncic’s weight, discipline and overall commitment to the game have come out since the deal and often times the best athletes take real offense and use those slights as extra motivation to prove the doubters wrong. And Edwards feels that is exactly what will happen with Doncic now that he is on the Lakers:
“Hell yeah. If the respect that I got for him is where I think it is, yeah they created a monster, hell yeah. And I’m excited to play the Lakers now, cuz they created a monster boy, man what? He was getting 35 like it ain’t nothing. Now like, they finna make him drop to 240 [pounds] and all type of shit, like he’s gonna be dunking shit.”
Doncic is already next to impossible to stop, but with an extra chip on his shoulder who knows what he is capable of. One thing that is for sure is that all eyes will be on Doncic’s return to Dallas and that includes Edwards himself who hopes to be in the building as long as he isn’t playing that night:
“I’m excited to see the first time the Lakers play Dallas in Dallas. I’m super excited to see that, oh my god… It’s in a few weeks? If we’re not playing I’m buying front row tickets to that bitch.”
It is already crazy enough that the Lakers acquired one of the five best players in the NBA in the prime of his career. But getting Doncic with even more motivation is a dream come true and the Lakers stand to benefit greatly.
Doncic and the Lakers are set to return to Dallas one more time this season on April 9. The Timberwolves do not play that night, so perhaps Edwards will make the trip to watch.
Lakers’ Dorian Finney-Smith defends Luka Doncic amid conditioning criticism
If there are questions about Luka Doncic’s conditioning, those who have played with him aren’t buying it. Lakers forward Dorian Finney-Smith spent multiple years with Doncic in Dallas and he defended the new Lakers star.
“I know him, man. He want to play the whole game. Now I think he played like 40 minutes every game last playoffs. So that’s one thing about L, he a hooper, he want to play. So I don’t really look at the noise, I look at his production and he produced. Shit, if I’m putting up them type of numbers, maybe I need to be 270.”
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