INGLEWOOD — Lakers star LeBron James, in his own words, had “seen it all.”
After 22-plus years and counting in the NBA, there isn’t much that can surprise NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
But this past weekend, the Lakers pulled off the unimaginable, shocking even James by acquiring five-time All-Star Luka Doncic in a three-team trade that sent 10-time All-Star Anthony Davis to the Dallas Mavericks, Doncic’s former team.
“I have seen it all up until this one,” James said after the Lakers’ 122-97 road victory over the Clippers on Tuesday night. “I have never been a part of one transaction like that. That was different.”
There’s a reason why James hasn’t seen a transaction like the one that brought Doncic to Los Angeles, with the 25-year-old perennial MVP candidate holding his introductory press conference on Tuesday morning in El Segundo.
And it wasn’t just because of the stealthiness that the Lakers and Mavericks operated under, with James not finding out about the trade until he was at a late dinner with his family after the Lakers defeated the New York Knicks on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
“I thought it was for sure fake,” James said. “I thought it was a hoax, people messing around or whatever. But then when A.D. called me, A.D. 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 and it still pretty much didn’t seem real until I saw Luka [on Tuesday] and I saw a clip of A.D. at the Dallas shootaround.
“That’s when it finally hit me, like, ‘Oh [expletive], this is real.’”
The deal is the first in NBA history in which two reigning All-NBA players have been traded for each other midseason, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
“It’s something I haven’t seen before, obviously,” James said. “It was shocking when I heard the news, but at the end of the day, I understand the business of basketball. I didn’t make the decision. But it was just, it was shocking in the sense of who was involved, obviously, with Luka and A.D. I don’t know. I don’t have much words for it.”
Like Coach JJ Redick and many of his teammates, including Doncic himself, James was balancing the emotions of the excitement of now being teammates with Doncic – who James referred to as his favorite player in the NBA for a while – and lamenting no longer having Davis on the team after they were teammates for 5½ seasons.
The on-court success of the Lakers’ James-Davis era is easy to see: the 2020 NBA title, which ended the franchise’s 10-year championship drought; four playoff appearances in five seasons, including a trip to the 2023 Western Conference finals; the 2023 NBA Cup; simultaneously receiving All-Star honors as teammates four times and All-NBA honors twice.
But James’ relationship with Davis extended beyond the court.
“It was great – it was everything and more,” James said. “Literally became brothers over the last 5½ years. What we were able to accomplish on the floor, obviously that goes without saying.
“But more importantly, what we were able to accomplish off the floor, us growing together, knowing each other’s families, seeing each other grow, seeing each other’s kids grow. It’s pretty … it’s pretty unique. Obviously I was at his wedding, when he got married. It’s been … it was special. It was special, for sure.”
James’ personal connection with Davis made it difficult to fully absorb the magnitude of the trade over the nearly 72 hours between it first being reported on Saturday night and when he spoke with reporters for the first time post-trade on Tuesday night inside the visiting team locker room at Intuit Dome.
But James made it clear he’s excited to be teammates with Doncic, who remains sidelined with a strained left calf injury he suffered on Dec. 25 but could return in Saturday afternoon’s home game against the Indiana Pacers.
“It’s kind of hard right now to kind of digest what it’s going to look like on the floor,” James said. “Obviously, two selfless, competitors. Love seeing the success of our teammates. Luka’s been my favorite player in the NBA for a while now. I think you guys know that. And I’ve always just tried to play the game the right way and inspire the next generation. And Luka happens to be one of them.”
James thinks his pairing with Doncic, who talked and laughed with James while watching Tuesday’s game from the bench, will be a “very seamless transition.”
“Whatever we want it to be,” he responded when asked what it will take for the star duo partnership to be productive. “It won’t take long. I can play with anybody, and he can as well. So we’ll work well together.”
Clippers coach Ty Lue, who coached James during his star pairing with Kyrie Irving for three seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers (2014-17), also pushed back against the notion that the James-Doncic pairing won’t work because of their high on-ball usages.
“They’re not right,” Lue said before Tuesday’s game. “It’ll work. When you have LeBron James, who’s been the best player in the league for the last 15 years. And you have Luka, who’s a top-three/top-five player in the league, they’ll figure out how to make it work.
“LeBron can play with anybody. The way he plays, he’s smart enough to understand how to play with certain guys, how to play off of guys and when to pick and choose his spots. JJ will do a good job of staggering those guys, so they each have their own unit, kind of like we did with Kyrie and Bron. But they’ll figure it out. It’s not a tough problem to have, I’ll tell you that. So they’ll make it work.”
The future – building a roster around Doncic and Redick’s coaching philosophy – was a significant theme of Doncic’s introductory press conference, with very little mention of James outside of when questions about him were directly asked.
The NBA trade deadline is Thursday, and James pushed back against the notion that he would be concerned the Lakers only care about the future with Doncic leading the way and not maximizing the twilight years of James’ career.
“What’s wrong with that? If I had concerns about it, I’d waive my no-trade clause and get up out of here,” James responded when asked if he had any concerns about the organization’s priorities possibly shifting from the present to the future.
James added: “I’m here right now. I’m here right now. I’m committed to the Lakers organization. I’m here to help Luka and Maxi [Kleber] make the transition as smooth as possible. [Markieff Morris] been here before, so he already know what we’re about. I won a championship with him in 2020, so I ain’t worried about him. But as the leader of the team, as one of the captains of the team, it’s my job to make it as seamless as possible.”