![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/doncic-iso-101725.jpg\")
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Luka Don\u010di\u0107 looks primed to take the court for his first season opener with the Lakers.<\/p>\n
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Although Luka Don\u010di\u0107 has always loved the ocean, he had never lived in a coastal city until this year. Ljubljana, Slovenia; Madrid; and Dallas are all fine stopovers on the journey of a transcendent basketball player, but they\u2019re not exactly near the beach.<\/p>\n
A water view is not the biggest reason Don\u010di\u0107 is embracing his new life with the Los Angeles Lakers, but the past year has reminded him to enjoy every opportunity when he gets it.<\/p>\n
Over the summer, he reportedly bought a $25 million Manhattan Beach mansion that used to belong to tennis star Maria Sharapova. Don\u010di\u0107 says he mostly stays home with his fiancee and daughter when he isn\u2019t working \u2014 and now he has a home on the edge of the sparkling Pacific.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ocean is my favorite thing, and the beach,\u201d he said during training camp. \u201cI\u2019m a big water guy. Everywhere I played, I never got to experience the ocean, so now it\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n
The past nine months of upheaval in Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s life have left the Slovenian superstar unbothered, but also refocused on the things that are most important to him \u2014 and basketball is still atop that list.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I had a great summer, and I really have a fresh mind now,\u201d Don\u010di\u0107 said. \u201cSo it all starts again.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a summer of well-documented fitness gains and international hoops success, Don\u010di\u0107 begins his first full season with the Lakers on Tuesday night when they host Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.<\/p>\n
Everyone could see Don\u010di\u0107 was slimmer and faster in his two preseason appearances this month for the Lakers, who brought him back to full game fitness cautiously after his busy summer at EuroBasket. Don\u010di\u0107 says he made his physical changes largely with conditioning exercises, not diet changes \u2014 but he\u2019s still hungry to add more achievements to his stellar career.<\/p>\n
Coach JJ Redick says Don\u010di\u0107 is \u201cin a clearer headspace\u201d this season, \u201cand by that, I mean just mentally and emotionally in balance. It allows you the freedom to just be yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
The upheaval of 2025 hasn\u2019t stopped now that Don\u010di\u0107 is finally settled in LA, however.<\/p>\n
LeBron James, one of his boyhood idols and his most talented teammate, is recovering from sciatica<\/a>, leaving Don\u010di\u0107 to lead the Lakers by himself for at least the first few weeks of the season.<\/p>\n Don\u010di\u0107 knows how hard it will be to win without James by his side, but he is committed to the Lakers\u2019 project under Redick, his former teammate with the Mavs.<\/p>\n Don\u010di\u0107 showed it by agreeing to a three-year, $165 million contract extension<\/a> in August, bypassing the chance at free agency next summer and quelling any lingering doubt that he had embraced his stunning midseason move.<\/p>\n The season opener against Curry is his first test, and he looks forward to making his own stamp on the Lakers\u2019 lengthy rivalry with the Warriors.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously if it was Steph against LeBron, everybody would watch it,\u201d Don\u010di\u0107 said. \u201cGoing against Steph is very exciting. It\u2019s going to be tough. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a rivalry (for me yet), but it\u2019s sure exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n Don\u010di\u0107 is still just 26 years old, but he understands the responsibilities inherent in his role as the centerpiece of the Lakers\u2019 next era, and he\u2019s trying to meet them. He played a role in improving the Lakers\u2019 roster during the summer by lobbying Deandre Ayton<\/a> and Marcus Smart<\/a> to join him.<\/p>\n After the first Tuesday practice of training camp, Don\u010di\u0107 took his teammates a few miles down the road to the Porsche Experience Center. The Lakers got to watch each other as they tested speedy sports cars \u2014 including rides big enough to accommodate huge men like Ayton.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never done that before \u2014 never had one of the star players on the team really look out for the team like that,\u201d Ayton said. \u201cSomething like that is actually crazy. I\u2019d never been in a Porsche before, so it was my first time. I didn\u2019t know Luka was into cars like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s teammates have noticed his increasing confidence in taking a leadership role one season after he was thrust into a new locker room at midseason. His carefree, occasionally goofy demeanor in the locker room endears him to teammates like Rui Hachimura and Austin Reaves, who share his lighthearted attitude.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way he came here was a big shock to the world, I\u2019m sure to him as well,\u201d guard Gabe Vincent said. \u201cHe\u2019s done a lot of work to be around the guys more and just get himself comfortable and more involved.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luka Don\u010di\u0107 looks primed to take the court for his first season opener with the Lakers. EL SEGUNDO,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,138849,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-230070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-luka-doncic-lakers-opener","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}