Los Angeles, Feb 5 (IANS) Following Los Angeles Lakers’ 122-97 win over the Clippers, LeBron James reflected on the addition of Luka Doncic to his team at the Intuit Dome on Wednesday (IST).
The 40-year-old James, who was named Western Conference Player of the Week on Monday for averaging 27.5 ppg, 7.3 rpg and 10.0 apg, believes the Slovenian’s addition to his team will be ‘special’.
“It’s going to be special. We’re gonna attract a lot of eyes. Listen, Luka is a big-time player. (He’s) 25 years old, hasn’t even reached his prime yet, and he’s done some amazing stuff in our league already. I’m happy to have him and LA is happy to have him. It’s still a little bit surreal, to be honest,” said James to reporters post-game.
Doncic, 25, was drafted by the Mavericks in 2018 and was blossoming into one of the best players in the NBA. He had donned his side’s colours in 422 games while averaging 28.6 points, 8.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists per game.
Under his influence, the Mavs had reached the 2022 Western Conference Finals and the 2024 NBA Finals, where they lost 1-4 to the Boston Celtics.
Anthony Davis, on the other hand, was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2019 from the Pelicans, who in exchange received Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and three first-round picks, including the fourth overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft.
Davis went on to form a formidable duo with LeBron and was also the anchor of their 2020 championship run.
The 21-time NBA All-Star stated his emotions were all over the place when he learnt of the trade and stated he had a facetime conversation with his former teammate straight away.
“My emotions were all over the place, obviously. We had just come off a big win. A huge win in the garden. I was out. I mean, you guys have seen the report. I was out with my family at dinner and got the news, and the first time I heard it, I thought it was for sure fake. I thought it was a hoax, people messing around or whatever. But then when AD called me, AD FaceTimed me and I talked to him for quite a while, and even when I got off the phone with him, it still didn’t seem real.”
Asked about the video call with Davis, James said, “It was definitely a weird, uncomfortable, truth moment for us. Just knowing that he was going to be gone, that was very, very difficult. Very challenging. I can see how in shock he was, obviously. And he probably saw it from my face, as well.”
–IANS
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