Luka Doncic injury update: New Lakers star reveals where he is in recovery process

Luka Doncic has been dealing with a calf injury, so naturally, the Los Angeles Lakers were questioned about a timeline for their new superstar.

Doncic is considered day-to-day, as revealed by him and GM Rob Pelinka during Tuesday’s introductory press conference. It seems like the former Dallas Mavericks star is confident in his rehab and took it a little more serious this time around.

By that, we mean he was patient.

“For the first time, I took my time,” Doncic said. “Get it to heal 100 hundred percent. You know, other times I think I just wanted to go back on the court, playing basketball and not really be healthy 100%. So this time, I just took my time, which was the normal amount of time to get it back to 100%.”

Doncic, who was a homegrown star with the Mavericks, just led Dallas to the NBA Finals last season, falling in five games to the Boston Celtics. It was one of the more shocking trades in NBA history as Dallas shipped him to LA for Anthony Davis and other pieces.

“Honestly, it was hard at first. That first day was really hard,” Doncic said. “I felt like this last 48 hours was one month, like two days ago was one month ago. So emotionally it was really hard. But every day, like today was much better. I’m just very happy to be here for this opportunity. It’s the Lakers. It’s one of the best clubs in history. So excited to be here.”

Doncic is now teaming up with LeBron James to try to bring the Lakers a championship. While he is clearly not thrilled about leaving Dallas, he is also looking forward to playing alongside James and for the Los Angeles Lakers.

“It’s just like a dream come true, you know. I always looked up to him,” Doncic said. “There’s so many things I can learn from him. I’m just excited, just to learn everything and I get to play with him. So it’s an amazing feeling.”

The Mavericks front office has criticized Luka Doncic in recent days for not being in the best shape, as well as for his defense. Doncic was asked about the comments and chose not to address them.

“I’m just excited to be here, to start this new journey,” he said. “Obviously at some point I knew this was going to happen. But I would say always take the high road, you know. I had amazing moments in Dallas with all my teammates, coaches, and most importantly the fans, you know. They always supported me and it was an amazing journey.”

Matt Connolly contributed to this report.