The Los Angeles Lakers are in complete support of everything Luka Doncic is doing right now.
Doncic made good on the fitness challenges that the Lakers’ strength and conditioning staff gave him, so his participation in the European Basketball Championship, the EuroBasket, if you will, is not only something they signed off on, it’s something they made sure to fully embrace.
As the Athletic’s Dan Woike writes, the franchise’s main decision-makers traveled over 6,200 miles from Los Angeles, California, to Katowice, Poland, to watch the Slovenian star play internationally.
“Lakers governor Jeanie Buss and president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka attended Luka Dončić and the Slovenian national team’s final practice before his EuroBasket tournament begins on Thursday in Poland, showing the organization’s full support for Dončić’s participation,” Woike wrote.
“Despite Dončić’s knee-injury scare in Slovenia’s warm-up schedule, Pelinka said he and Buss have no concerns about his continued participation with his national team now and in the future.”
The purple and gold are fully committing to Doncic as they transition out of the LeBron James era. Trading Anthony Davis for James was the first step, and only consulting Luka before signing Marcus Smart and Deandre Ayton this offseason only solidified it.
James has never been a No. 2 option in his career for longer than a series. Even ceding the leadership role to Dwyane Wade in the 2011 Finals against the Dallas Mavericks didn’t last long. James was the undisputed No. 1 option for the rest of his Miami Heat tenure, then continued that into his return to the Cleveland Cavaliers and seven-year run in the City of Angels.
LeBron is still a Laker, for at least another year. He’s just not the Laker anymore.
Who is? Well, Jeanie Buss and Rob Pelinka just traveled around the world for him.
