Rob Pelinka and the Los Angeles Lakers held a press conference on Saturday morning to announce Luka Doncic’s new contract extension. The superstar inked a three-year, $165 million deal with a player option in the final season to remain with the franchise.
Pelinka traded for Doncic with no guarantee that he would want to stay with the team long-term, so getting him to sign this extension was their most important business of the offseason.
Now that they were able to do so, Pelinka talked about how big of a day Saturday was for Doncic and the organization.
“Six months ago to the day, the Los Angeles Lakers chose Luka Doncic through a trade where he came to our franchise. Today, Luka Doncic chose the Los Angeles Lakers and that is a monumental moment in Lakers history,” Pelinka said to open the press conference. “And we could not be more grateful for [Luka] choosing this partnership. The best young basketball player on the universe joins, for the long-term future, the best sports franchise on the globe. So truly and exciting day on behalf of Jeanie Buss and Mark Walter and Coach Redick and a lot of Luka’s teammates, Marcus (Smart), Gabe (Vincent), Maxi (Kleber), Deandre (Ayton) that are here today.
“Just want to let you know how incredible of a moment this is for us. Today wouldn’t have happened without Lara Beth (Seager) and Bill Duffy. I’ve been in the basketball circles since 1998 and I don’t think I’ve come across partners that work as hard with as much integrity to partner with a franchise like they have, so thank you guys for helping us create this moment for Luka and his family.”
Doncic has already made it clear that he wants to be able to compete for and win championships every year with the Lakers, so now it will be up to Pelinka to make the moves necessary for that to happen.
The Lakers are traditionally known for taking care of their superstars, and there’s no doubt the same will be the case for Doncic now that he has sign a long-term deal.
Luka Doncic believes Lakers roster can compete for championship
Luka Doncic helped the Lakers recruit both Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart this offseason and with those additions, he believes the team is good enough to compete for a championship in 2025-26.
“Honestly, I think we have a great team,” Doncic said at the press conference to announce his extension. “We have what we need to compete for the championship… We’ll all try to win every game no matter what and we have some new great guys on the team, so we’re gonna go for it.”
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