Austin Reaves didn’t know what to think of Luka Dončić when he first met him.
After the Mavericks stunningly traded Dončić to the Lakers in February 2025, the Slovenian superstar mostly kept to himself.
Reaves acknowledged he didn’t even think they would become friends.
“I wasn’t joking,” Reaves told the California Post in an exclusive interview. “There were times when the trade first happened where we would walk by each other in the locker room and not say anything to each other because I didn’t know what to say to him. That was the first reaction: ‘What is this guy going to be like?’”
It’s hard to believe that was just a year and a half ago.
Nowadays they often spend their afternoons together on golf courses. They jokingly take shots at each other during interviews. And they have each other’s backs.
Their chemistry has translated onto the court, where they’re the NBA’s best offensive duo.
Dončić leads the league in scoring (36 points per game). Reaves is 16th (24.4 points per game). Dončić and Reaves are the highest-scoring duo in the league (60.4 points per game) by a landslide, averaging nine points more than Steph Curry and Yaxel Lendeborg (51.4 points per game) who are second.
They’re averaging more combined points per game than the Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O’Neal duo ever did, including when they averaged a combined-high of 57.5 points in 2001-2002 en route to leading the Lakers to three straight championships.
Their synergy on and off the court is the ultimate proof that Dončić has embraced the Lakers.
When Dončić was dealt to the Lakers, he was shellshocked.
He was coming off a 2023-2024 campaign in which he led the Mavericks to the Finals and finished third in MVP voting before Dallas ripped the rug out from under him. Dončić had wanted to spend his entire career with the Mavericks. Instead he was left feeling betrayed and mortified as the only NBA superstar of his caliber to be jettisoned against his will in his prime in the modern era.
When he first arrived in Los Angeles, his head was spinning.
“For me, it’s hard to speak when I come to a new team, new people,” Dončić told The Post. “It’s kind of hard for me to speak. I had some people I knew from before, so I kind of hung out with them. But after that, in [next season’s] training camp, [Austin and I] got really close. That’s when it probably started.”
***
It was obvious everything had changed between Dončić and Reaves last season.
Their awkward silence had morphed into brotherly teasing.
Dončić joked that Reaves wanted to be his friend, but he’s “not allowing it.” Reaves pointed out that he had more dunks than Dončić. Dončić lovingly called Reaves “a hater.” Reaves tenderly called his teammate an “A-hole.”
Dončić was happy.
He needed the summer to wrap his mind around the trade. After having some space, his hurt transformed into determination. He realized he had an opportunity of a lifetime ahead of him: He was the face of the 17-time champion Lakers, a globally celebrated brand. As soon as Dončić fully bought in, his personality began to show.
Reaves saw who he really was.
“Once we came back for the next year, right off the bat we had similar interests,” Reaves told The Post. “We kind of act the same, which is kind of sad to say for me. But we both love joking around, having a good time.”
Reaves and Dončić are both funny. They’re understated. They’re humble. They prefer spending time with their loved ones over the LA scene. Golf is their meditation.
As soon as they developed a bond, their chemistry started bleeding onto the court.
When LeBron James was out at the top of last season because of sciatica, Dončić and Reaves led the Lakers to a 15-4 start. Then last March, when James was struggling with multiple ailments and sidelined for three games, the duo led the Lakers to wins over the Pacers, Knicks and Timberwolves, sparking a 15-2 run.
There was a synergistic dance between the guards. They reacted off one another as though they were musical instruments in an orchestra.
“Having him come out of his shell and just be himself is the best thing that can happen, not just for the organization, but for him, for us, for everybody,” Reaves told The Post.
***
Last season was challenging for both stars, who tried to support each other through their speedbumps.
Dončić was in a custody battle with his ex-fiancée, Anamaria Goltes, over their two daughters who were living with her in Slovenia.
Reaves knew he was going to turn down his $14.9 million player option in June to become a free agent, and he hoped he could return to the Lakers.
In a bit of poetic cruelty, Dončić and Reaves both suffered injuries in a game against the Thunder on April 2 that derailed the Lakers’ playoff hopes.
Dončić suffered a strained hamstring that sidelined him the entire postseason. Reaves sustained a strained oblique, an injury that would keep him out the first four games of the team’s first-round series against the Rockets.
They were there for each other through everything.
“It’s very interesting how life works, and there’s certain things that happen in people’s life where you kind of create a bond over things,” Reaves told The Post. “We’re all around each other 95 percent of the time throughout the year, especially when [basketball is] in season. We might get an off-day every week or two weeks.
“But you travel together and you know the things people are going through. And you just want to be there for him. And there were a couple of things on both sides where we were both going through things and having each other’s company was the best thing that could’ve happened. And it’s grown into a real relationship after that.”
***
Dončić and Reaves banter like brothers, but they also have each other’s backs as though they were family.
Last summer, Dončić made it clear to Lakers brass that a few things were very important to him. He wanted a franchise center. And he wanted Reaves to remain his teammate.
The Lakers were Doncic’s team after James left in free agency for the 76ers in July, and the franchise’s top priority was to make its superstar happy.
The Lakers went on to sign Reaves to a four-year, $180 million deal in July, the richest contract in NBA history for a player who went undrafted.
In Reaves’ first public comments after agreeing to the deal, he let it be known how much Dončić meant to him.
“Luka,” Reaves said in Las Vegas in July, “I mean, he’s one of my best friends on this planet. Talk to him almost every single day. He sends me videos of his golf swing and asks me what he can do to get better, and I tell him I’m not a coach.”
Reaves went from viewing Dončić as a shy enigma with whom he didn’t know if he could relate, to letting him into his inner circle.
And Dončić went from feeling devastated that he was traded to the Lakers, to wanting to spend his entire career in a purple-and-gold jersey — and wanting Reaves in one alongside him.
“Hopefully, yeah,” Doncic told The Post when asked if he wants to retire as a Laker.
Doncic and Reaves won each other over.
They have one of the most amusing bromances in the league, which has led to them becoming the NBA’s most potent offensive duo.
Just a year and a half ago, this seemed far-fetched.
Now it seems limitless.
