Jeanie Buss has spoken about the unusual situation when Luka Doncic was traded from Dallas to LA – it was like nothing she had ever seen before.
The LAL CEO and minority owner recently opened up about how different the experience of joining the Lakers was for Luka compared to other NBA players.
“In my experience, welcoming a player to the Laker organization, I often hear, ‘This is my dream,’” Jeanie said on Pretty Tough. “I’ve always wanted to be a Laker, to play in the same place where Magic did, and Kobe and Shaq and Kareem. But Luka wasn’t like that.”
“He was still, I could see, trying to figure out — why is this happening? As soon as the trade happened, we had a private jet to bring him to L.A. to assimilate him into the organization,” she added. “And you could see that he left his heart in Dallas. It was going to take him time to process.
“It’s kind of like if your boyfriend breaks up with you, it’s okay to go out and get a new dress and try to make him regret he ever did that.”
Buss is certainly correct in her assessment. You only have to look at when Luka had his return game in Dallas and was very emotional watching his tribute video. The city and the Mavs meant a whole lot to him.
Of course since then, Luka has become an LA icon.
A few months after he was an in settled in, following one of the most shocking trades in recent NBA history, Doncic did admit he liked Los Angeles and playing for the purple and gold.
“This is the first city I play in that has an ocean,” Doncic said in June last year. “I really like the ocean, so that was nice.
“I like [being in Los Angeles]. I like it very much.”
Doncic has started noticing the celebrities that show up at Lakers games and enjoys putting on a show for some of the most famous people on Earth.
“Every game there’s famous people watching our games, sitting courtside,” Doncic said. “That’s amazing to see.”
Unfortunately for Lakers fans, Luka’s time on the court this season may be done, after he suffered a hamstring injury late in the regular season – it’s seen him miss the entire postseason so far.
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