The Lakers open their 2026-27 season on Wednesday 21 October with Luka Doncic as the first and only name on the marquee.
“Being famous is more times you hate it than you like it,” Doncic said in a video interview tied to Sports Illustrated’s digital cover feature by Chris Mannix, filmed in his hometown of Ljubljana.
Asked directly whether celebrity sits uncomfortably with him, he did not duck.
“A little bit, I would say… Yeah, definitely. But I wanted to play basketball, so the fame, that comes with that.”
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Doncic drew the sharpest contrast with Dallas, where he spent the first six and a half seasons of his NBA career before February 2025’s blockbuster trade.
“Because everything is very small and L.A. is everything big,” he told SI. “I got used to it. But it’s so strange.”
“I know there’s always going to be criticism. For me, it’s just noise around. There, I learned why bother? You don’t know these people. You don’t care what they say.”
From co-star to franchise anchor
LeBron James’s exit in free agency to the Philadelphia 76ers has left the Lakers’ entire 2025-26 playoff starting five scattered, according to Lakers Nation. Deandre Ayton, Rui Hachimura, Marcus Smart and Luke Kennard all moved on in the same window. Austin Reaves stayed. The roster has been rebuilt around him and Doncic.
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Doncic led the NBA in scoring last season at 33.5 points per game as Los Angeles finished 53-29, before a hamstring injury hobbled him into the playoffs. In the SI piece, he said flatly: “I can’t go through another season like that.”
Mannix spent several days with him in Slovenia as Doncic hosted his new teammates for a bonding trip, framed by the writer as the first offseason of a career the Slovenian now shoulders alone.
Season opener against the Warriors
Los Angeles hosts the Golden State Warriors on the second night of the NBA season, with tip-off at 7pm local time on ESPN. It is the Lakers’ first opening night without James since 2018, the team’s own schedule page confirms.
“I just want to play basketball. Fame, that comes with it.”
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