The Luka Doncic era has begun for the Los Angeles Lakers. While LeBron James, presumably, has at least one season left with the team, the pressure and expectations of leading the team to success have shifted over to Doncic.
In six seasons and change with the Dallas Mavericks, he reached the Western Conference Finals twice and the NBA Finals once. While that may be considered somewhat satisfactory for that franchise, things are much different when they play for the Lakers, a franchise that has won 17 world championships.
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Magic Johnson, who led the Lakers to five of those championships, made it clear during an appearance on ESPN’s “First Take” that the standard of excellence for Doncic in L.A. is the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
“Luka gotta understand this is not Dallas. To your point, Kobe [Bryant], superstar who led us, Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal) led us to a championship, LeBron led us. And that’s what’s missing here. We shouldn’t have to tell you to be in shape, you should have been about that, right? Especially when you’re a superstar. So this is gonna be an important year for the Lakers, important offseason for the Lakers.”
So far this offseason, Doncic has looked noticeably thinner, which is certainly a good sign. Assuming the Lakers improve the rest of their roster, it will now be on Doncic to lead the way, both on and off the court, along with James, as they continue to seek their 18th NBA title.
It won’t be enough for Doncic to continue to put up insane numbers — he needs to consistently deliver in crunch time, something he didn’t do enough of since joining the team, and especially during the postseason.
That is what true Lakers greats such as Bryant, O’Neal, Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did in the past and what James did during the franchise’s last championship season five years ago.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Magic Johnson makes expectations clear for Luka Doncic