Luka Doncic is set to debut for the Los Angeles Lakers tonight against the Utah Jazz. When the Dallas Mavericks traded him, he was nursing a calf injury, so now he’ll debut alongside LeBron James.
Among those who will be in attendance for Doncic’s debut is Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki, as reported by Marc Stein. Nowitzki himself explained on his personal X (formerly known as Twitter) account why he’ll attend.
“I will always be a Mav for life, but (I) had to come support my guy 77 (Doncic) in the first game of his new chapter!” Nowitzki wrote.
Doncic and Nowitzki were teammates. The former’s rookie season coincided with the latter’s final season in 2019. Thus, the year was one of pure sentiment. It was supposed to be a sendoff and a ray of hope simultaneously.
Before the Mavericks traded Doncic, he was seen as Nowitzki’s heir apparent in Dallas. He was well on track to becoming just that, having made multiple All-NBA first teams and taking the Mavericks to their first NBA Finals appearance since winning the title in 2011 just last year.
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be for some reason, and now Doncic is a Laker. No one knows what the future holds, but the Lakers get to see what Doncic’s prime will consist of, while the Mavericks will see if they have a strong enough team to win the title after trading one of the league’s best players.
What makes nights like tonight even harder is that Anthony Davis will be sidelined for some time, as he suffered an adductor injury during his first game with the Mavericks. If Doncic proves from the get-go how much better he makes the Lakers, and Davis is out indefinitely, Dallas may never be forgiven for what they did.
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