Luka Doncic surfaced in an unexpected place Saturday: Royal Birkdale, on England’s northwest coast, during the third round of the 154th Open Championship. The Los Angeles Lakers star sat down with Golf Channel host Rich Lerner as part of the network’s “Live From” coverage — and in the process gave his first extended public comments of an offseason he has otherwise spent almost entirely out of view.
“I think we have a really good team,” Doncic told Lerner when the conversation turned to basketball, per the interview that aired on Golf Channel, adding that he is excited to start the season. Most of the sit-down was about golf — how he caught the bug, the work he has been putting into his swing — but that one sentence is the first time the franchise player has publicly weighed in on the roster the front office spent July building around him.
It has been a busy month to weigh in on. The Lakers re-signed Austin Reaves to a four-year, $185 million deal, signed Walker Kessler for four years and $130 million, and added Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton and Sandro Mamukelashvili around the Doncic-Reaves core. Lakers insider Jovan Buha reported this week that the front office is targeting 50-plus wins this season with true contention penciled in for 2028. A one-line endorsement from a golf interview is not a state-of-the-franchise address, and it shouldn’t be read as one. But in the first summer after LeBron James’ departure, the tone of the man the team now belongs to counts for something, and the tone was relaxed.
There is also a locker-room footnote for the golf-curious: Reaves plays to a scratch handicap, so if Doncic is serious about the swing work he described, his backcourt partner doubles as an in-house instructor.
The fantasy read here is about the season, not the sound bite. With LeBron gone, Doncic enters the year as the unambiguous No. 1 option in an offense rebuilt to his specifications — a top-of-the-draft pick in every format, with a usage ceiling that has no obvious competition on the roster. Reaves is the secondary beneficiary: locked in on a long-term deal, established as the clear second creator, and a reasonable top-40 target whose assist and free-throw numbers should hold or grow in the new hierarchy.
