Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic gave a shocking and rare glimpse into his emotions from the night he was traded by the Dallas Mavericks in a new ESPN interview with Malika Andrews.
Doncic sat down one-on-one with Andrews for an interview that will be aired later Friday on NBA Today, and he got brutally honest about his feelings. The teaser video for the exclusive interview included what was maybe one of the best hooks ever in sports media.
In the video, Doncic's manager, Lara Beth Seager, showed Andrews a souvenir from the night Doncic found out he was getting dealt.
"I thought I would show you a souvenir from that night," Seager said, bringing out an extremely beat-up and damaged iPhone.
"You hang up the phone the night you're traded, and you threw it?" Andrews asked.
"Yes," Doncic replied. "Still works."
Luka Doncic tells @malika_andrews about throwing his phone and breaking it when he found out he got traded to the Lakers 😳
— ESPN (@espn) April 18, 2025
"My heart was broken honestly." 💔 pic.twitter.com/rfsIGlOaBC
Andrews then asked Doncic to elaborate on what he was doing before the trade went down.
“I was actually in bed,” Doncic said, “I was about to go to sleep, first thing I said probably three times was, ‘Is this April 1st?’”
“Sadness, mostly,” Doncic said when asked what he was feeling in that moment. “I was still in shock, like crazy shock. I felt like my heart was broken, honestly.”
The badly cracked phone may represent to date the most honest reaction fans will get to see from Doncic following his blockbuster trade on Feb. 2—albeit months after he threw it.
Doncic has seemingly tried his best to put his hurt feelings surrounding his exit out of Dallas behind him for now as he and the Lakers take on the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first-round series of the NBA playoffs.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Luka Doncic's Very Damaged Phone Reveals How He Really Felt After Trade to Lakers.
