LeBron James is surprised by the trade of Anthony Davis of the Lakers, but calls Luka Doncic ‘My favorite player’

Inglewood, California – LeBron James says he spent two days with incredulity after the Los Angeles Lakers exchanged Anthony DavisYour close friend and teammate for 5 1/2 years.

The top scorer in the NBA history is finally becoming familiar with the idea of ​​forming a new association with Luka Doncic, who also occupies a special place in James’s esteem.

“Luka has been my favorite player in the NBA for a while,” James said Tuesday night after scoring 26 points in The Lakers Buy Games on Clippers. “I have always tried to play the game in the right way and inspire the next generation, and Luka is one of them, and now we are teammates. Then it will be a very perfect transition. “

Like the rest of the world, James initially assumed that the exchange was a joke when he learned of that last Saturday night while having dinner with his family in New York.

“My emotions were everywhere,” James said. “The first time I heard it, I thought it was false false. I thought it was a hoax. People playing or whatever. But ad facing me, and I talked to him for quite some time. Even when I left the phone with him, he still didn’t seem real. It almost did not seem real until I saw Luka today, and then I saw the advertisement clip at Dallas Shootound. It was then that it finally hit me, as, ‘this is real’.

In the mid -22nd of the NBA season, which James, 40, has often said in recent years that he has seen everything that is possible to experiment in the NBA.

This exchange changed my mind.

“He has never seen this,” said James. “I have not done it. I have seen everything, until this. I have never been part of a transaction like that. That was different. … It was shocking when I heard the news, but at the end of the day, I understand the basketball business. “

The NBA trade deadline is Thursday, and James said he is determined to persevere in Los Angeles even after Davis’s departure.

When asked if he was worried about the Lakers approach, change Doncic and younger players, James replied: “What happens to that?”

“If I had worries, I would have renounced my non -trade clause and lifted me from here,” he added. “Listen, I’m here right now. I am committed to the Lakers organization. I am here to help Luka and Maxi make the transition in the softest way possible. “

Danc formally joined the Lakers on Tuesday, and spoke extensively with James while looking from the bank in Intuit Dome. The Slovena star is also recovering from one of the greatest trades in the history of the NBA, but seemed excited on Tuesday to join the venerable history of the Lakers with James, its self -collided idol.

And although JJ Redick and Tyronn Lue oppose the coaches in the rivalry of the NBA of the NBA of Los Angeles, they firmly agree that Doncic and James will form a dynamite pairing for the Lakers.

“I’m sure we can discover how to combine your talents positively in a very short time,” said Redick.

Although Doncic was not ready to debut With the Lakers on Tuesday night, the high scoring superstar was already the talk of the sand before the first Lakers game since they balanced the successful exchange sending Davis and Max Christie to the Dallas Mavericks for Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris.

Lue is well positioned to understand what Redick should do when Doncic returns. Lue was James’s coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers, who won a championship with James playing with Ballhawk’s guard, Kyrie Irving.

Lue smiled when asked how he would respond to experts and former players like Charles Barkley and Paul Pierce Those who think that James and Doncic will not work well together because both are dominant players of the ball.

“They are not right,” said Lue. “It will work. When you have LeBron James, who has been the best player in the League during the last 15 years, and you have Luka, who is one of the three best and best players in the league, will discover how to make it work. LeBron can play with anyone. … I know that JJ will do a good job stacking those guys so that each one has their own unit, as we did with Kyrie and LeBron, and then in the fourth quarter they will close the games together. They will solve it. It is not a difficult problem to have, I will tell you. “

Redick and Doncic were teammates for the last 13 games of the long career as a Redick player in Dallas in 2021. Doncic then made appearances in the Podcast well considered Redick.

“I would say we had a friendship (and) mutual respect,” said Redick. “Then you must discover how to have a working relationship as a player/coach, and both he and I are committed to that. … I’m excited to build that with him. “

While James felt the deal personally, they also did several teammates who love to play with veteran Davis and the promising wing Christie, a second round of the Lakers three seasons ago.

“The last days have been difficult for me,” said Austin Reaves. “I feel that I had an empty well in the stomach, just because in the last four years with AD, three years with Max, you create real relationships and ties, and out of nowhere (they are) in a different team, competing and doing what they want do “.

Talking about Doncic was a topic throughout it.

The Captain of the Kings of Los Angeles, Anze Kopitar, praised the acquisition of Doncic of the Lakers, one of the few most famous Slovent athletes than Kopitar, who already contacted his compatriot with congratulations.

“It is obviously a superstar worldwide, not only in Slovenia,” Kopitar said. “For our country, being so small, obviously everyone knows it. And it was a big problem, I know for what I heard back home. It’s good to have it here. “

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The Freelancer Ap Greenspan in the second contributed to this report.

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