In a little over a month, the Lakers’ torch will officially be passed to Luka Doncic.
It’s impossibly heavy, bearing the weight of 17 championships.
It’s impossibly unforgiving, putting its holder under an unforgiving microscope.
It’s impossibly fickle, transforming whomever’s carrying it into a hero or a failure with every polarizing dribble or shot they take.
The good news?
Doncic is ready.
He was raised by hostile crowds of nearly 20,000 screaming fans while playing for Real Madrid from the ripe ages of 13 to 19 years old.
He was tested by the Dallas Mavericks, with whom he was selected as the third overall pick in the 2018 draft and transformed into a top-four player in the league, leading the franchise to the 2024 NBA Finals.
He was sharpened by the shock, betrayal and humiliation of the Mavericks pulling the rug from under him, making the virtually unheard of decision to trade a superstar of his caliber in his mid-20s to the Lakers in February 2025.
He was vindicated by a revenge tour that included getting in arguably the best shape of his career last summer ahead of leading the league in points (33.5) and finishing third in assists (8.3) last season.
Now the stakes are even higher.
Even though the Lakers have technically been his team for the last season and a half, he always had a shield. It was in the form of LeBron James, who has been the face of the league for two decades and is arguably the greatest player of all-time.
Doncic was the brightest star. But James was a supernova.
When the Lakers struggled, fingers pointed at the 41-year-old, who has dominated news cycles long enough for fathers and sons to cycle through the league.
Doncic no longer has protection.
After eight seasons with the Lakers, James left in free agency for the Philadelphia 76ers. That means Doncic will be standing alone under one of the brightest and most unforgiving spotlights in sports.
He spent the summer readying himself for that responsibility.
He hand-selected his teammates.
Doncic wanted Austin Reaves to remain by his side. The Lakers signed him to a four-year, $180 million extension, the richest contract in NBA history for a player who went undrafted.
He wanted Walker Kessler to be his partner down low. The Lakers mortgaged their future to get him, emptying their cupboard by signing him to a four-year, $130 million deal, including giving the Utah Jazz unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033 and first-round swaps in 2028 and 2030. (The Lakers don’t have a tradeable, unencumbered first-round pick until 2034.)
Doncic made it clear he’s all in, too.
For the first time in his career, he paid for the entire Lakers roster to come to Slovenia so he could host a mini camp to build team chemistry.
He’s foaming at the mouth to win his first championship. That was never more obvious than last March when he put up video game stats, averaging 37.5 points, eight rebounds and 7.4 assists, leaving the league blinking in disbelief as the Lakers tornadoed to a 15-2 record over that stretch.
He desperately wants to win his first MVP Award. That was never more obvious than when his face was streaked with pain while talking about how he fell in the NBA’s MVP rankings despite his superhuman performance last spring.
“The better I play, the more I go down in ratings,” Doncic said in March. “So I don’t know what more I can do.”
Well, make no mistake about it: That slight lit another fire under him. It’s dangerous, considering he has been smoldering since the trade.
Doncic is ready to explode.
And he has the perfect conditions to do it.
He’s playing for one of the most celebrated franchises in sports. He’s next in line behind a who’s who of household names, including Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and James.
He’s used to the pressure, having experienced it from raucous crowds since he was a teenager. He responded by becoming the youngest player to win the EuroLeague MVP Award at age 19, while also carrying his team to a championship.
Over the last two seasons, he has been insulted. He has been embarrassed. He has been overlooked.
Now he wants to make his detractors pay.
We watched Bryant thrive under those conditions, becoming a five-time champion with the Lakers. We also watched Bryant see something in Doncic when he playfully trash-talked him in Slovenian during a Lakers game in 2019.
That moment seems prophetic now.
Bryant was the last Laker who really excited a city inured to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, the back-to-back world championship Dodgers and enough sunshine to keep people away from their televisions and arenas.
Unlike James, who had won three championships before joining the Lakers in free agency in 2018, Bryant became a champion in front of our eyes.
Doncic has the opportunity to do the same thing.
He can become LA’s next superhero.
Or he can fade into being an embarrassing footnote.
It’s up to him.
And he appears ready.
