The Los Angeles Lakers made an early exit from the NBA playoffs after losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves, but their new player Luka Doncic isn’t in the mood to sit idle and gain weight. Doncic is already looking slimmer in his latest appearances, and it has now been revealed that he will be playing for his home team Slovenia in the EuroBasket tournament during the offseason.
Matej Erjavec, president of the Slovenian Basketball Federation, has confirmed that the Los Angeles Lakers have agreed to send Luka Doncic to play for Slovenia during the offseason, but on the condition that he will be accompanied by a coach from the Lakers. Which coach will accompany Doncic to Slovenia has not been revealed. The matches will begin in August, with Slovenia facing Poland in their first game.
“Within two minutes in a meeting with Rob Pelinka, he stressed, ‘Well, you will get Luka and one coach, and that’s it.’ And with that, we were done. There was no debate at all,” Erjavec said via Eurohoops.net.
This is not the first time Doncic will be playing for his home team during the offseason. Even when he was a part of the Dallas Mavericks, there was a similar setup in place for him, and Dallas Mavericks assistant Sean Sweeney had accompanied Doncic to the tournament. Slovenia had won the 2017 EuroBasket tournament when Doncic played for them for the first time.
Former Los Angeles Lakers player Markieff Morris recently shared his views on what he thinks is behind Doncic’s better fitness. He said on First Take chat show, “When you’re eating hotel food, you’re getting in at 3 o’clock in the morning in different cities, you have to eat at 4 o’clock in the morning with a back-to-back. All that stuff takes a toll on your body. The stress of being in a long season, the stress of being traded midseason, it’s just the things he went through last year.
Doncic was recently spotted at the Real Madrid basketball game, and fans couldn’t stop talking about how he was looking much fitter. He moved from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers in February this year in a shocking trade.
