BEHOLD THE JOY OF LUKA DONCIC IN LOS ANGELES, WHILE DALLAS IS ABOUT TO RIOT
His new town is ecstatic as he debuts with LeBron — and his old town is ejecting angry fans at American Airlines Center, where ex-owner Mark Cuban told them to “Shut the f— up and sit the f— down!"
The cameras found him. To treat his strained calf in Crypto.com Arena, where every fan received his gold No. 77 jersey, Luka Doncic elevated his leg inside a tunnel with a therapist. Then he walked over to a bicycle, where he spun and watched his new team dominate an opponent. The time will come, at some point, when he will do considerably more for the visuals than score 14 points in 23 minutes.
But on this evening, Los Angeles was electrified that a phenom was playing for the Lakers with LeBron James as his teammate. His debut was a special moment in a city familiar with legends, especially those who play basketball. Imagine being Doncic when he was introduced last among starters in a rocking building.
“Don’t fit in. Fit the f— out,” said James, who warmed up in a Luka shirt. “Be yourself.”
“Chills,” Doncic said. “For him to say something like that just feels amazing. The way they received me, everybody, it was great to see. I was a little bit nervous before. I don’t remember the last time I was nervous. But once I stepped on the court, it was fun. And just being out there again felt amazing.”
It was James who arranged for the rousing moment. He is supposed to be the last man on the court, but welcome to the future of the NBA and American sports. He is 40. Doncic is 25 and will command the Lakers for the next dozen years, one would think. “He let me have my moment so I really appreciate it. I mean, today, he lent me this one,” Doncic said. “Shows what kind of person he is. But from now on, he'll be the last.”
In Dallas, fans don’t want to hear about Luka joy in southern California. They remain lethal as center Anthony Davis, acquired in the Doncic trade, will miss multiple weeks after suffering a left adductor strain. What is the point of developing a new culture with Davis when he can’t stay healthy? Several people were ejected Monday night, ignoring heightened security at American Airlines Center. Two of them held “FIRE NICO” signs, a reference to Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison, and one uttered “fire Nico” on a video screen. Patrick Dumont was booed viciously as the team governor from the Adelson family, which bought the team from Mark Cuban in 2023.
No one hated the trade more than Cuban, yet he engaged in a screaming match with two men — one wearing a Slovenian national jersey. “Shut the f— up and sit the f— down!” Cuban shouted late in a 129-128 loss to Sacramento, when fans were yelling “Fire Nico!” while the Mavericks were shooting free throws. Dumont didn’t help himself or the team by criticizing Doncic’s character in the Dallas Morning News. He was reluctant to pay a $345-million supermax contract. He didn’t say that in an interview.
“In my mind the way teams win is by focus, by having the right character, by having the right culture, and having the right dedication to work as hard as possible to create a championship-winning outcome,” Dumont said. “And if you’re not doing that, you’re going to lose. If you look at the greats in the league, the people you and I grew up with — Jordan, Bird, Kobe, Shaq — they worked really hard, every day, with a singular focus to win. And if you don’t have that, it doesn’t work.
“And if you don’t have that, you shouldn’t be part of the Dallas Mavericks. That’s who we want. I’m unwavering on this. The entire organization knows this. This is how I operate outside of basketball. This is the only way to be competitive and win. If you want to take a vacation, don’t do it with us.”
The more Doncic hears backlash, he should be more ecstatic about the change. Once he loses weight and stays healthy, assuming that will happen, expect the Lakers to be an exhilarating offensive machine. They whipped the Utah Jazz in a 132-113 romp while Doncic was resting his leg and missed 9 of 14 shots, including six from the three-point line. The plan for now is to watch James, who left the game with abdominal pain, rule the assault with Austin Reaves, who has been brilliant as the third cog. Are they a contender in the Western Conference? The Lakers aren’t on the level of the Oklahoma City Thunder — even if center Mark Williams is allowed by the league to return after failing a physical — yet watching them will be a delight.
“Since I came here, I just wanted to play with them,” Doncic said of a hectic week with three missed games. “Every game I saw, they played amazing, very connected, and for me, it was just I want to be there with them. Just the amount of cheering in the arena was absolutely unbelievable. That was my favorite part.”
The fans were beyond thrilled. Only in Los Angeles can Doncic play downtown and Shohei Ohtani up the hill in Dodger Stadium. “He came out ... and obviously the place went crazy,” Reaves said. “It was awesome. I thought the energy from that point forward was great. His introduction in the starting lineup was one of the loudest I've heard.” The baseball team has created a dynasty with an all-time financial whirlwind. Championships are expected in purple and gold, too, when only one title has been won since 2010. Owner Jeanie Buss and general manager Rob Pelinka are well aware and, to the surprise of James and his handlers, they allowed Doncic to have a say in acquiring Williams when LeBron did not. If the bosses want to contend immediately, they can’t screw around with James and agent Rich Paul when Doncic seems happy after his original shock.
“It's a new team. New everything,” he said. “But the way they helped me, teammates, Rob, Jeanie, it was just a lot of support for me. You could see when I came to the arena, I saw all the Luka jerseys. It was just a surreal feeling.”
The man in charge is coach JJ Redick, who last month dealt with wildfire destruction of his Pacific Palisades home and now must orchestrate James and Doncic. He will see monstrous scoring and will struggle to find defense. For now, it’s February.
“I think he handled it well,” Redick said. “And, you know, knowing Luka, whether he will admit this or not, like there was probably a little bit of nerves playing for the Lakers for the first time. And the anticipation that our fans have, this building had, his teammates had, our coaching staff had. He kinda gets that, he sees that. He could not make a three outside of the first one, but he just, again, it goes back to all our guys, they just played agenda-free basketball. What tonight was not, he didn’t make it about Luka.
“He made it about playing good basketball and playing Laker basketball. I thought our three main guys did a nice job playing off of each other. Sometimes you can have agendas in a game. I felt like this for our group was a no agenda game beyond winning a basketball game and playing the right way.”
The Mavericks tossed fans for violating the league’s Code of Conduct, including the use of “explicit language” and breaking a rule for being “intoxicated, disruptive and uncooperative.” Coach Jason Kidd blew off a news conference after the game. In the locker room, Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving didn’t scold the fans. That’s bad news for the Mavs — players not standing up for management.
“I understand frustration because Luka was that great and he was homebred here,” Thompson said. “It's not our job to get deflated because people are upset. Our job is to convince them that there's really great days ahead, not just for this year but for the next few years. I mean, people are going to say stuff, and that's understandable. I was a fan, still a fan. If I didn't agree with a trade, I'd probably voice my opinion too. That's the beauty of sports. You go there to yell and be rambunctious sometimes.”
Kyrie had to be Kyrie, saying fans have "graduated from hate to anger to the cycle of emotions ... and then the passion.” Explain. “You just got to give everybody grace,” Irving said. “To see the emotions come out like that over basketball, that just shows you that basketball is not just a game to certain people. It's a spiritual experience. It's a connector piece, and they watch their favorite players and they want to see them forever. So, I run the side of just understanding where people are coming from.”
There is tension in both cities. The Hornets have asked the league to reassess the condition of Williams, who was returned to Charlotte when he failed a physical in Los Angeles. Didn’t Pelinka and Doncic know he has missed 60 percent of his games in three seasons with back and foot injuries? And Magic Johnson is among those wondering why Doncic, who is listed at 230 pounds, was playing in the high 260s this season — one reason the Mavericks traded him.
“LeBron James will be a positive influence on Luka, teaching him his championship mentality that includes taking his conditioning seriously,” Johnson said.
As Monday faded into Tuesday, while Dallas was agonized, the Lakers were stirred. Doncic donated $500,000 to wildfire recovery. “It’s been so sad to see and learn more about the damage from the wildfires as I landed in L.A.,” he wrote online. “I can’t believe it, and I feel for all the kids who lost their homes, schools and the places where they used to play with their friends.”
The rest of us just wonder what’s next. “I don’t see any world where those two playing together isn’t a good thing,” Utah coach Will Hardy said. “Their processing speed mentally is incredible, and so I’m sure they’ll figure it out.”
“I just think it could be a thing of beauty, the way we can manipulate the game on the offensive end and get what we want every single possession,” said Reaves, who scored 45 points Saturday. “Luka is one of the best passers in the world … but yeah, I think it’s just the high-level IQ going along with pieces that really fit. Luka and LeBron can shoot the ball, pass the ball, and really play the right way.”
Breathtaking is the word. The cameras might want to ignore Luka’s calf and head to Texas, where riots are developing.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.