Back in February, the Dallas Mavericks stunned the basketball world when they traded Luka Doncic to the LA Lakers. Following his brief stretch with his new team, one NBA legend sent a stern message to the superstar guard.
The Lakers are one of the NBA's most successful franchises and have a standard of excellence. Because of this, stars find themselves with a lofty set of expectations when they don the purple and gold. Following this year's blockbuster trade, Doncic now finds himself tasked with meeting delivering similar results as the Lakers stars before him.
During his appearance on ESPN's "Get Up" Thursday, Magic Johnson harped on the expectations that come with being a star on the Lakers. As one of the league's top talents in the prime of his career, the Hall of Fame point guard challenged Doncic to deliver the iconic franchise a title.
"In Los Angeles, we expect championships," Johnson said. "And we expect our superstars to lead us to a championship. LeBron has already done that. Now we want Luka to do the same thing."
Upon arriving in LA, Doncic maintained his high level of production. In 28 regular season appearances, he averaged 28.2 PPG, 8.1 RPG, and 7.5 APG. Doncic elevated his production in the postseason, but it wasn't enough to get the Lakers out of the first round.
With LeBron James being towards the end of his days in the NBA, Doncic was brought in to be the next face of the franchise. Seeing that he led the Mavericks on multiple deep playoff runs, Johnson is not the only one who expects him to yield big results for the Lakers.