EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — The collected media, Lakers bigwigs and others waiting for L.A.’s newest superstar chatted, speculated and whispered. “Is LeBron here?”
Some wondered if he had also come to take it all in until, suddenly, everything went silent. Luka Doncic appeared, startled looking, wearing gray slacks and a light gray sweater with a white collar poking out from underneath. Rob Pelinka, the Lakers general manager, flanked him, his giddy 1000-watt smile starkly different from Luka’s seeming bewilderment.
Only the sound of phones and cameras clicking, sneakers squeaking on LA’s practice floor and the hold-your-breath expectation of held-in questions — there are so many — punctuated this shocking, sudden change.
“There’s a lot of people here,” Doncic said after he sat down. “I don’t think there’s ever been so many people in my press conference.”
Nor so much to try and understand about a trade of this magnitude. When the news broke over the weekend that a three-team deal was sending Anthony Davis from L.A. to Dallas and Doncic here, much needed to be understood.
Here are some early takeaways that stood out from the nearly 30-minute session, one of the earliest opportunities to grasp what all of this means from two of its key players how they fit into a puzzle whose pieces are still starting to fit together:
- This is now Luka’s team, not LeBron’s.
- The Lakers are focused on building around Luka long-term, and not necessarily around a Luka-LeBron tandem, at least not with the kind of urgency LeBron would likely demand.
- Doncic insisting he had no clue this trade was coming and played no role in the move.
- LeBron James, who was not there, seemed a largely secondary thought — a rare reality for a player who has always been his team’s most overwhelming presence, physically present or not.
There is still much to grasp, and this press conference offered more clues to try and do that. One of the biggest questions remains whether or not LeBron James had any say in the trade or advance notice — and what that will tell us about his current status with the Lakers.
On that front, the only mention of LeBron came from questions posed by an ESPN reporter, and Luka’s earnest praise of his new teammate.
“It’s like a dream come true,” Doncic said about teaming up with the GOAT. “I always looked up to him. There’s so many things I can learn from him. I’m so excited to learn from him and play with him. It’s an amazing feeling.”
But Pelinka did not talk about LeBron once, at one point referencing “the other people that are also on our team right now.”
Not, We can’t wait for LeBron to play with Luka.
Not, The pairing with Luka and LeBron is extraordinary.
Not, even, We are aware LeBron James is still on this team.
Nope. LeBron seemed to have been relegated to “the other people” who now play with a “top-three player in the universe.”
That sentiment seemed to be hammered home by the clear message the Lakers, while they’d like to win now, see this move as a long-term play. And that the short term — also known as LeBron’s remaining window — is no longer the priority.
LeBron also has a player option this summer, a critical detail if he really didn’t know about this trade in advance, and if the Lakers would still want to avoid making him frustrated enough, or feeling disrespected enough, to up and leave.
Instead, Pelinka referred to Luka’s arrival as a “starting point” for the Lakers — not, it is yet worth noting again, an addition to a team that already has LeBron James on it.
“It’s a gift,” Pelinka said about Luka the Laker. “We’re talking about a 25-year-old that is a top-three player in the universe. I can’t think of a more amazing starting point to build a roster for the next decade.”
Or this: “We want to format a team that fits JJ (Redick)’s coaching style and (Luka’s) strengths and needs to help us win a championship with the other people that are also on our team right now that are going to be a big part of that.”
Pelinka several times also tamped down expectations of winning a title now, acknowledging that with the Lakers “there’s always an urgency to win championships” while making it clear the focus is long term.
“At the same time you have to be realistic. If there’s not a championship big on the market right now, I can’t wave a wand and create that opportunity,” he said, referencing L.A.’s lack of a reliable center.
Luka, throughout this, also addressed his exit from Dallas.
Asked about his feelings toward the decision makers in Dallas, Docnic said, “That’s their decision, so I have no comment on that. They made that decision, and I don’t know why.”
Luka was also asked about concerns he might want to leave Dallas when his contract expired in 2026, something CBS Sports had heard as a possibility and that Mavs GM Nico Harrison danced around Sunday at his own press conference, saying, “there’s some unique things about his contract that we had to pay attention to, there were other teams loading up, he was going to have to make his own decision… about whether he wanted to opt out.”
Asked if he or anyone in his inner circle had ever indicated he might not sign the supermax (worth roughly $345 million) in Dallas, Doncic said, “Absolutely not.”
Doncic also insisted he was shocked by the trade and didn’t see it coming, saying, “I thought I was going to play my whole career there.”
But the young star also embraced the idea of being in L.A., wearing the purple and gold, and trying to win a championship with his new team.
And now that he is a Laker and not a Mav, Pelinka and those in power in Los Angeles are fully focused on Doncic playing the rest of his career here.
If that happens — and Luka still has his own player option looming in the summer of 2026 — his new team made it clear Tuesday its plan is to build everything around him.
And very likely not around the co-star so conspicuously absent, in person and in general, from the official introduction of the new face of the Los Angeles Lakers.
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