Doncic s renewal journey: Everything seems to be the best arrangement

When night fell, the exhausted Luca Doncic was thinking about boarding the plane and going home.

A few days ago, he flew from Slovenia to New York and embarked on a journey across three American cities, and the end of the journey was Los Angeles, a city he had just decided to survive his peak. Coincidentally, the timing of all this is actually a "happy accident". The publicity tour from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles was finalized long before the Dallas Mavericks traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers.

So, on this night, he came to the last stop of the tour, serving as a judge of the slam dunk contest in the "The One" Jordan brand global event and watched the one-on-one confrontation. After a full week of interviews, appearances and commercial shooting, it was the last level between him and his 13-hour quiet flight to Ljubljana, Slovenia.

He talked about his condition at that time: "I'm exhausted."

But then, he heard one of the players, Kaden Bailey, shouting to the audience and opponent after scoring: "He can't defend me at all!" Suddenly, a burst of energy poured into Doncic. A sly smile appeared on his face, and the audience also boiled.

In that venue, Doncic is more empathetic than anyone else.

This moment once again proves that he is in his position, a new team, a new city, and a whole new opportunity. Just the Saturday before, he officially confirmed all this: on the first day after the Lakers were able to issue a offer, he signed a three-year contract extension.

The contract was loaded in a specially made purple-black folder, with his name and Lakers logo printed at the diagonal of the folder. When signing the contract, a phrase selected by his agent team was also put on the big screen behind him: "The Beginning" (a new beginning).

For Doncic, the importance of information transmission is no less than anything else in the past week. His reputation has been hit since being traded by the Mavericks to the Lakers in February this year. The phone call not only completely subverted his professional foothold, but also instantly turned his dream of a lone hero to die.

After the Lakers lost to the Timberwolves in the first round and were eliminated, Doncic admitted that he was "psychically tired of everything that happened." But when he returned to the United States for this tour, what he showed was no longer the person he was at that time. Doncic's agent Lara Beth Sieger said he no longer cared about the burden he had when he left Dallas.

She said in an interview with The Athletic: "He has come out." This offseason, Doncic has undergone a physical transformation, fasting for 16 hours a day and strictly following a diet and training plan. He detailed the plans in the cover story of Men’s Health magazine, and the report sets the tone for his trip. He also talked about these changes on the New York Yankees broadcast and on the Today Show.

Doncic and the team were having a meal with The Corner Store at Cecconi’s during his stay in New York. He also recorded an episode of "Hot Ones" and visited the Statue of Liberty for the first time. Doncic met with Lakers' new boss Mark Walter for the first time while watching the Yankees game. He also raided the NBA headquarters in New York, which surprised league employees.

After a short stay in Chicago, Doncic went to Los Angeles. The Lakers' contract extension had been waiting for a long time, and the outside world had almost never doubted whether the Lakers could make him nod and promise.

Sig said: "I think from the moment Luca was traded here, everyone knew very well, 'He is here now', he wanted to win wherever he is, and winning is important to him, we will work hard with the team and will not choose to wait. His mentality is never to jump jobs everywhere, but to compete for the championship.

"His mentality is to build everything wherever he is and work hard with everyone. As long as he signs with a team, it is a marriage, and you should treat it like a marriage. Marriage will have difficult times and good times, but you must always be loyal and trust each other. This is Luca's character. I don't think he had the idea of "I won't renew my contract." ”

Doncic arrived at the team's training hall before 7 a.m. and completed a training session before signing the contract renewal.

He didn't know that Sieg and the Lakers had planned to give him a surprise that night and fly to Las Vegas to watch the backstreet boys in The Sphere The performance. Coincidentally, Doncic played the backstreet boys song in the Lakers training hall that day. This is another small proof of his "tact understanding" with the team. After the training, Doncic first met with his team members and then officially signed a contract renewal.

He personally announced the news on social media and promised to provide $5 million in funding and guidance to help 77 young athletes in need.

A few hours later, the Lakers held a news conference to celebrate the renewal. The press conference was open to the public. As soon as the reporters entered the venue, they saw a special photo wall showing Doncic's precious moments from draft night, national team career to joining the Lakers.

Doncic continued to work hard to connect with Lakers fans. Previously, he had donated money to rescue wildfires and repair Kobe Bryant's murals. At Saturday's press conference, he deliberately opened the opening speech to Lakers fans in Spanish:

He joked: "And that's it, I won't speak English anymore. "After the press conference, Doncic learned that she would watch the "Backstreet Boys" concert that night, and not only would her family and friends go with her, but also Lakers teammates and management members, including Jenny Bass and Walter, also went there. Bass was used to keeping a low profile at the press conference, but this time she sat in the back row of the media seat to watch Doncic answer questions about the contract renewal with general manager Robert Pelinka. After that, she went to Las Vegas with Walter, head coach JJ Redick and several teammates to celebrate his new starting point with Doncic.

Seger said: "He only looked forward. He has come here. He wants to bring the best players here. He wants to win, he knows it all starts with himself, and I think that's what he proves this offseason. ‘Well, everyone wants to say, or people think they know me, say I’m not a leader, or I’m this and that, I don’t care. They say whatever they want. ’”

"I want them to see who I am. ”

Whether it was meeting Walter in private in New York or on Today Interacting with audiences on the morning show, whether it’s signing sneakers at NBA stores, making fancy shots at Dickman Park in Manhattan, or grinning at trash talk in Los Angeles, Doncic came back to the United States this time, and seemed more real and more like himself than the last time.

Since the Lakers were eliminated, Doncic has strictly controlled his diet and reduced sugar intake. He has not participated in any real live basketball game. That night, he boarded the plane and joined the Slovenian national basketball team to start the 2025 FIBA European Basketball Championship at the end of this month The warm-up schedule is his first inside match against the team, which will be his first five-on-five official game since the Lakers were eliminated. He said to Seger on his way to the Carbone restaurant in Las Vegas, "I miss basketball very much."

The smile on his face as he stood on the roof, and despite the intensive publicity itinerary and impromptu Las Vegas celebrations, he still looked forward to it and couldn't wait to return to the court.

The next three years, and maybe even longer, he will play for the Lakers in Los Angeles, and that stadium will become his home.