{"id":135230,"date":"2025-04-18T20:57:52","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T00:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=135230"},"modified":"2025-04-18T20:57:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T00:57:52","slug":"luka-doncic-lakers-mavericks-nico-harrison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/18\/luka-doncic-lakers-mavericks-nico-harrison\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Doncic Dishes on Lakers Trade, Nico Harrison in ESPN Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of the <\/span>Lakers<\/span><\/a>\u2019 first-round duel with the <\/span>Minnesota Timberwolves<\/span><\/a>, superstar guard <\/span>Luka Doncic<\/span><\/a> sat down for an exclusive interview with ESPN\u2019s Malika Andrews. The world got to hear Doncic\u2019s full thoughts on the blockbuster trade to Los Angeles, his newfound loyalty to LA, and what it will take for the purple and gold to thrive in the postseason.<\/span><\/p>\n

Luka Doncic Dishes on Lakers Trade, Nico Harrison in ESPN Interview<\/h2>\n

Full Reaction to Trade<\/b><\/h3>\n

Doncic revealed he was in bed watching a movie when he found out he was dealt to the Lakers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[The] first thing I said probably three times is, \u2018It\u2019s April 1st,\u2019\u201d <\/span>he said<\/span><\/a>. \u201cI was still in shock, crazy shock. I felt my heart was broken, honestly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He also addressed criticisms that he incurred on his way to LA, <\/span>most notably about his conditioning<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it\u2019s painful, depends how you take it,\u201d he said. \u201c[It] mostly came from Dallas, so I just didn\u2019t want to talk back. But I don\u2019t really read that much stuff. I\u2019m just trying to focus on my journey.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Response to Nico Harrison\u2019s Comments<\/b><\/h3>\n

Doncic\u2019s interview came days after Mavericks General Manager Nico Harrison held a closed-door media availability, which included a <\/span>testy exchange with ESPN\u2019s Tim MacMahon<\/span><\/a>. When MacMahon pressed Harrison on why he traded Doncic after their 2024 Finals run, Harrison repeated his justification of the deal: \u201cDefense wins championships.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just sad, the way he\u2019s talking right now,\u201d Doncic said. \u201cI never [said] anything bad about him, and I just want to move on. The fans, my ex-teammates, I\u2019ll always keep at heart. It\u2019s time for me to move on from there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When asked whether he has spoken to Harrison since the trade, Doncic responded, \u201cNo,\u201d and confirmed his intention was to retire a Maverick.<\/span><\/p>\n

But now, Doncic says his loyalty goes to \u201cbasketball first,\u201d adding that he wants to stay in Los Angeles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Luka on Lakers-Wolves<\/b><\/h3>\n

Doncic, like every Lakers, Wolves and NBA fan, looks forward to the looming first-round matchup between the West\u2019s respective no. 3 and no. 6 seeds.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go against the best, you gotta be at the top, so that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to do,\u201d Doncic said.<\/span><\/p>\n

His battle against four-time Defensive Player of the Year <\/span>Rudy Gobert<\/span><\/a>\u2014one that\u2019s been <\/span>memed into oblivion<\/span><\/a>\u2014is an added bonus to what will surely be an excellent series.<\/span><\/p>\n

The five-time All-Star has <\/span>torched the Western Conference all year long<\/span><\/a>, but it seems he almost has an affinity for matchups against Minnesota. In the 2024 Western Conference Finals, <\/span>Doncic averaged<\/span><\/a> 32.4 points, 9.6 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game on 47% shooting from the field, 43% from three and 84% from the free-throw line.<\/span><\/p>\n

Doncic has said it will take \u201ceverything\u201d for the Lakers to come out on top, and the Lakers will need him to bring everything for a long playoff run. Aside from <\/span>LeBron James<\/span><\/a>\u2019 heroics, they\u2019ll place equal reliance on Doncic to lead LA to a first-round victory. Considering Luka\u2019s elite track record at 26 years old, he\u2019s more than ready to meet the moment as the Lakers battle the Timberwolves, who are hungry to play spoiler.<\/span><\/p>\n

Game 1 of Lakers-Wolves tips off April 19 at 8:30 p.m. ET\/5:30 p.m. PT on ABC.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ahead of the Lakers\u2019 first-round duel with the Minnesota Timberwolves, superstar guard Luka Doncic sat down for an exclusive interview with ESPN\u2019s Malika Andrews. The world got to hear Doncic\u2019s full thoughts on the blockbuster trade to Los Angeles, his newfound loyalty to LA, and what it will take for the purple and gold to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":135235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,30,26,62],"tags":[38,1133,49881],"class_list":["post-135230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-mavericks","category-lakers","category-nba","tag-lebron-james","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nico-harrison"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135230"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135237,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135230\/revisions\/135237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}