The Los Angeles Lakers hosting the Dallas Mavericks marked the first opportunity for Luka Doncic to play against the team that traded him.
It was admittedly an emotional night for Doncic, but he and the Lakers were at least able to come away with a win with him recording a triple-double against his former team.
It also likely was an emotional night for members of the Mavericks organization who know Doncic so well. He meant a lot to that franchise in his seven years there and built some strong relationships.
Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd was asked about Doncic before the game though and if they have spoken since he sent the 25-year-old a text when the trade initially went down.
“No I have not,” Kidd revealed.
If Kidd were to speak to Doncic, he discussed what he would say to the player he coached for four seasons.
“That he keeps smiling,” Kidd said. “When he’s smiling, he’s in a great place and he’s having fun. It’s good to see that he’s smiling here of late and again, just understanding that the business of basketball could be shocking and it was shocking to the world, but you have to move forward, you have to push forward. He has a job to do and that’s to play basketball at a high level and I think he can do that.”
Kidd is someone who got traded early in his career as well, so he can relate to Doncic in a sense. Even though they haven’t spoken, he isn’t worried about how Doncic is handling such a big change in his career and life.
“When you look at what Luka is probably going through, there’s a lot of attention on this one game, but the train keeps moving,” Kidd said. “This game is going to come and go and understand that he’s gonna be one of the best players in the world and the Lakers are fortunate to have him.”
Luka Doncic enjoyed seeing Kyrie Irving & other former teammates
Even though Luka Doncic was focused on getting the win for the Lakers, he enjoyed getting to see Kyrie Irving and his other former Mavericks teammates.
“Ky is my hermano. We go way beyond basketball. So it was good to see those guys, like I said, we went through wars together. It was really fun to see them all,” Doncic.
After the game, Doncic was seen greeting Mavericks players and staff members. One person he did not greet, however, was his former head coach Jason Kidd.
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