{"id":611333,"date":"2026-02-19T09:39:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T09:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/611333\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T09:39:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T09:39:36","slug":"lebron-james-revisits-ivica-zubac-trade-when-he-is-going-against-us-he-kicks-our-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/611333\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James revisits Ivica Zubac trade: “When he is going against us, he kicks our a\u2014”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ivica Zubac<\/a> is preparing to play his first game for the Indiana Pacers<\/a> following a trade from the Los Angeles Clippers, where he spent the last seven seasons and just one day after becoming a father for the first time.<\/p>\n

It marks only the second time in his 10-year career that the Croatian center has been traded, but this situation hit harder considering he spent his entire career in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

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L.A. is a city you get used to quickly and while Indianapolis lives and breathes basketball, the lifestyle comparison is tough.<\/p>\n

Still, Zubac will have to move forward quickly and continue the strong play he displayed with the Clippers<\/a>. Indiana was built with him in mind as part of a championship pursuit, something LeBron James<\/a> and Steve Nash elaborated on.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know if it is if he hates the Lakers because of the trade or whatever, but when he plays against us, he kicks our a\u2014,” James stressed on the “Mind the Game” podcast. “He kicks our ass, man. He’s really gigantic. A lot of people don’t understand how big he is \u2014 great hands around the rim, great touch.”<\/p>\n

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“I think it’s a great pickup for Indy, especially going into the future. After losing Myles Turner to Milwaukee, different players, but I think with Tyrese coming back at some point, with Zu, I think it’s going to work well,” James added.<\/p>\n

“Zu works well with playmaking point guards or playmaking players and Tyrese is one of the best playmakers in our game. Obviously, you saw what he was able to do over the last couple of years with James.”<\/p>\n

The Lakers never gave a fair chance to Zubac<\/p>\n

Taking a step back, the 7-foot center struggled to find consistent opportunities in the Purple and Gold uniform. The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> were in a transitional period following the era of Kobe Bryant and Zubac was one of many young players who passed through that legendary locker room.<\/p>\n

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He wasn’t the only one whose potential the Lakers failed to fully recognize. Later on, players like Julius Randle and Brandon Ingram built All-Star-caliber careers, while others, such as Jordan Clarkson and Josh Hart, became key pieces for their respective teams.<\/p>\n

The Lakers, however, have never been an organization willing to wait several years for a young core to develop through the draft. They wanted LeBron and to get him, they had to sacrifice pieces. During that period, Zubac left the Lakers in what many saw as a bizarre fashion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We were in Boston. My phone rings, we had a game that day, we did shootaround,” Zubac recalled<\/a>. “The deadline was around 2 p.m. Normally, I sleep before games, but back then the whole team was talking as everyone was preparing for Anthony Davis, all that. We all thought we were getting traded.”<\/p>\n

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“I answer and both of them are on the line. Magic always talked first. He says something like, ‘We traded you, thank you for everything, thank you for what you did, you played some great games for us this season\u2026’ And he’s talking and I still don’t know where I’ve been traded. I literally don’t know” Zubac added.<\/p>\n

Related: “I had to sacrifice” – LeBron James reveals the two vices he cut out to overcome sciatica injury<\/a><\/p>\n

Zubac went on and established himself as one of the best centers in the game<\/p>\n

Although the call came from Rob Pelinka, Magic Johnson was on the other side of the line, something that has stuck with Zubac ever since. He never forgot it and he always played with extra motivation against James and company.<\/p>\n

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In his last eight games against the Lakers, Zubac averaged 15.4 points, 13.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists on 59.1 percent shooting from the field and 86.4 percent from the free-throw line. And the Lakers traded that potential for Mike Muscala, who was a solid journeyman player, but at his best, he couldn’t tie Zu’s shoes.<\/p>\n

It took Ivica some time to find his rhythm and establish himself with the Clippers, but once he reached that level, he never looked back. He developed into one of the best centers in the league, the kind of player the Pacers view as a missing piece in their championship puzzle, which says enough about the major mistake the Lakers made back in 2019.<\/p>\n

Related: \u201cWe started learning all the stuff we probably shouldn\u2019t\u201d \u2013 Ivica Zubac credits 50 Cent’s and Eminem’s music for helping him learn English<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Feb 18, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ivica Zubac is preparing to play his first game for the Indiana Pacers following a trade from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,4441,559,126,532,2131,327,376,1536,4034,192,4032,185,251,135,4033,4031,10358,6,2543,2152],"class_list":{"0":"post-611333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brandon-ingram","10":"tag-clippers","11":"tag-indiana-pacers","12":"tag-ivica-zubac","13":"tag-jordan-clarkson","14":"tag-josh-hart","15":"tag-julius-randle","16":"tag-kobe-bryant","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-la-clippers","19":"tag-laclippers","20":"tag-lebron-james","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","23":"tag-losangeles","24":"tag-losangelesclippers","25":"tag-mike-muscala","26":"tag-nba","27":"tag-steve-nash","28":"tag-the-lakers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116096634925033934","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}