Luka Doncic’s life turned upside down this past season when he was unexpectedly traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Players of Doncic’s caliber don’t typically get traded without requesting it, much less in the middle of a season. Making the trade even more tough to process for the Slovenian star was that he had just closed on a new house in Dallas that he expected to be his forever home, which made sense considering he had just led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals a year prior.
The NBA is a business though and Doncic found that out the hard way. But ultimately, that trade may have been the best thing for his career as he now gets to play for one of the most historic franchises in sports in one of the biggest cities and markets in the world.
Doncic did not get much time to adjust after the trade, but on the most recent episode of the “Mind the Game” podcast with LeBron James and Steve Nash, he discussed what he likes and dislikes about his new city so far:
“Well first of all, this is the first city I’ve played in that has an ocean, and I really like the ocean. First thing, I mean, after a couple days, that was the first thing on my mind, you know. It’s a lot. I like it, I like it very much. The only thing is the traffic.”
One other aspect of playing for the Lakers in L.A. is that Doncic will always have celebrities at his games. That is not something he expects to affect him though:
“No, not really. But every [game] there’s famous people watching our game sitting courtside. That’s amazing to see. But not really, not that much.”
Playing in Los Angeles will certainly have long-term benefits for Doncic both on and off the court. Once the initial shock of the trade wore off, he seemed to be enjoying his new team and teammates. They obviously had a tough end to the season, but the hope is that with a full offseason to get acclimated, Doncic and the Lakers will be back in championship contention in 2025-26.
Luka Doncic enjoyed playing with LeBron James
Getting traded to the Lakers allowed Luka Doncic to team up with LeBron James, a player he grew up studying and idolizing. While they only played together for a couple of months, Doncic spoke about how much he enjoyed it and what he learned from the 40-year-old.
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