Dirk Nowitzki explains why he attended Luka Doncic's first game with Lakers

The Luka Doncic trade shook up the sports world recently, sending one of the NBA’s most gifted superstars to the Los Angeles Lakers. Many people couldn’t believe it at first. But it happened. And there are few people closer with Luka Doncic than former Maverick legend Dirk Nowitzki. His longtime friend decided to make the trip out to LA to watch the Slovenian superstar’s first game with the Lakers.

Nowitzki explained his reasoning behind the move in a recent interview.

"Obviously Luka, we texted a bit… I felt a little disappointed and sad for him. He invited me to come out to his first game in LA. I felt like I had to support him."

Dirk Nowitzki on showing up for Luka Doncic's Lakers debut 🗣️

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Doncic has not looked very impressive in his first few games with the Lakers. In his last outing, Doncic only scored 14 points, while hitting just one of his nine three-point attempts. He did manage to grab 11 rebounds in that one, posting a double-double. In the previous two games for the Lakers, he pumped in 16 points and 14 points.

It’ll go down as one of the more shocking and surprising trades in league history, no doubt about it. From the sounds of it, all of the parties involved in the trade were surprised by it, too.

The biggest piece of the trade was unquestionably Luka Doncic, who has been without a doubt, one of the best players in the NBA for several years now. Before the deal, he was averaging 28.1 points per game, 8.3 rebounds per game, and 7.8 assists per game, while drilling 35.4% percent of his shots from beyond-the-arc. He’s also hitting 46.4 % of his shots from the field.

He’s been dealing with a left calf strain this season, receiving multiple opinions on the injury in late December before the Mavericks made any decisions about his timeline to return. He was ruled out of Dallas’ Christmas Day game shortly after he went to the locker room with the injury and was seen on crutches after the game. He did not play at all for the Mavericks since Christmas.

Last season, Doncic and Kyrie Irving propelled the Mavericks to their third NBA Finals appearance in franchise history, where they lost to the Boston Celtics. Doncic also earned Western Conference Finals MVP honors in the process.