Magic Johnson Sends Message To Luka Doncic

Luka Doncic spent the second half of the 2024-25 season in a daze following his shocking trade to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Doncic had been sidelined for weeks due to a calf strain and was close to making a return before the Dallas Mavericks traded him to Los Angeles. Despite the abrupt ending and difficult circumstances, Doncic and the Lakers were able to cobble together enough wins to secure the third seed in the Western Conference playoffs.

Unfortunately, Doncic’s first Lakers’ playoff series went poorly as the team lost in five games to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Almost immediately following L.A.’s elimination, people called for him to get into better shape to carry a team deeper into the playoffs.

Magic Johnson is the latest person to call out Doncic’s conditioning and warned that the upcoming year is important for the franchise during an appearance on ESPN’s “First Take” on Thursday morning:

“Luka gotta understand this is not Dallas. To your point, Kobe, superstar who led us, Shaq 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.”

Johnson understands more than anybody what it’s like to be the face of the Lakers franchise and while Doncic has the talent and popularity to fill that role, he’s still got more to accomplish on the floor. Johnson isn’t the only former Laker to call him out as Robert Horry also noted Doncic needs to be better on the defensive end.

As far as Johnson’s other comments, this summer is a pivotal one because they’ll need to find pieces to surround Doncic with long term. This season’s roster wasn’t built with him in mind, so finding complementary players will go a long way in ensuring Los Angeles is in a better spot to compete for championships.

The Lakers will go as far as Doncic can take them and it’ll be exciting to see if he’s up to meet the challenge.

Luka Doncic putting in work in weight room

Because the conditioning angle has been talked about endlessly, it’s hard to imagine that Luka Doncic isn’t doing what he can to prepare for the 2025-26 season. In fact, he recently posted a video of himself getting work done in the weight room and looks like he’s already in better shape.