Basketball superstar and talk of the town Luka Doncic made his Los Angeles Lakers press conference debut on Tuesday morning, appearing alongside team general manager Rob Pelinka to share his thoughts on the bombshell trade that moved him from the Dallas Mavericks, his presumed franchise home, to L.A.
Doncic, in the prime of his career at 25, will share the court with Lakers cornerstone and aging All-Star LeBron James, whose eventual retirement it would seem Pelinka and the Lakers front office are preparing for. Until then, however, they'll be teammates, and despite Doncic's feelings about leaving Dallas, he sounds very excited to play with King James.
"It's just like a dream come true, you know. I always look up to him," Doncic told the room. "There's so many things I can learn from him and I'm just excited, you know. Just to learn everything and I get to play with him. So it's an amazing feeling."
As for how he sees the pair of them playing together, "I think we both make our teammates better. I think our IQ is very high so I think that's going to help everybody," he continued, in response to another question.
LUKA & LEBRON@luka7doncic answers questions about playing with @KingJames and how that will work on the court.
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Doncic also said James called him right after news of the trade broke.
"He called me right away," Doncic told the media. "We didn't talk much 'cause, you know, he said, 'I understand what you're feeling.' But that was really nice of him just to call me right away and welcome me to L.A."
James himself hasn't commented much on the blockbuster trade, which also sent close friend and Anthony Davis to Dallas. The 40-year-old bid his teammate adieu with a brief social media post and quickly shut down talk of beef between the two of them, but he's been otherwise quiet.
Notably, James is one of two NBA players with a no-trade clause baked into his current deal with the Lakers, and word on the street is he will not waive that clause ahead of the Feb. 6 trade deadline. Barring another extremely dramatic dealing, it's looking more and more like Doncic and James will be sharing the court for the foreseeable future.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Luka Doncic Shares Thoughts on Playing With LeBron James During First Lakers Presser.
