Apr 9, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) walks on to the court before the game between the Dallas Mavericks and the Los Angeles Lakers during the first quarter at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Lakers' Luka Doncic gets emotional during tribute video in return to face Mavericks

Originally posted on Dallas Mavericks on SI
By Austin Veazey | Last updated Apr 9, 2025 7:45 PM ET

The Dallas Mavericks are hosting the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday in Luka Doncic's first game back in the American Airlines Center since February's shocking trade. Dallas planned some welcome-back momentos, such as T-shirts on seats saying thanks in Slovenian (which a lot of fans found in bad taste), announcing Doncic last in the starting lineups to give the crowd time to applause, and special endorsements (which Doncic had canned).

But the Mavericks also gave Luka Doncic a tribute video during player introductions before the game, which you can watch here. He was very emotional during the video, visibly crying as the video

Luka got emotional watching his tribute video from the Mavs pic.twitter.com/ySim9PqNUg
— NBA TV (@NBATV) April 9, 2025

Doncic knew this would be an emotional night, saying as such in his postgame press conference after the Lakers played in Oklahoma City on Tuesday night. His father was in attendance, as was Dirk Nowitzki, who Doncic saw as a mentor in his early years in Dallas.

The Mavericks also posted a collage on Instagram earlier in the day thanking Doncic, though they called him "Luke" in a thank you post on TikTok.

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In six and a half seasons with the Dallas Mavericks, Luka Doncic won Rookie of the Year, made five First-Team All-NBA, led them to the Western Conference Finals in 2022, and to the NBA Finals in 2024. It still doesn't feel real to most Mavericks fans that he's on the Lakers, but Nico Harrison had other ideas about the direction of the franchise. Doncic said on multiple occasions he wanted to play his entire career in Dallas but wasn't given the opportunity to do so.

This article first appeared on Dallas Mavericks on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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