It was a move nobody saw coming. In February 2025, Luka Doncic, one of the NBA’s brightest young superstars, was traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers in a blockbuster deal involving Anthony Davis.
The trade sent shockwaves across the league. Fans, teammates, and even Doncic himself were stunned.
In the weeks following the trade, Doncic admitted that the transition had taken a toll emotionally and mentally.
But amid the whirlwind of headlines and speculation, there was one piece of advice that grounded him, a three-word phrase his father repeated often.
That advice, simple yet powerful, helped him make sense of the upheaval and adjust to a new chapter in his career.
Advice from Sasa: Embrace the moment
Luka‘s father, Sasa Doncic, himself a former basketball player, told his son, “Embrace the moment.”
Those three very words would shape the lens through which Luka began to view everything that followed. “It was still a shock, but just, you know, he would say, embrace the moment,” Doncic revealed.
At its heart, this advice asked for acceptance: accepting the shock, the surprise, the loss of familiarity.
It meant not resisting what couldn’t be changed, but instead leaning into what was ahead. For a player used to being the centerpiece in Dallas, someone who had led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals and had been a consistent All-NBA presence, this was a seismic shift.
Soon after the trade, Dallas had moved on quickly, citing concerns about his conditioning and the trajectory of contract negotiations.
Critics seized on physical shape and perceived attitude as justification. Sasa Doncic pushed back, maintaining that those criticisms missed the full picture of Luka‘s effort and commitment.
For Luka, embracing the moment became more than a motto. Physically and mentally, he entered a period of adjustment.
He carried the expectations that come with being traded for another star player and joining a franchise like the Lakers with its own unique culture and pressures.
He admitted that in the immediate aftermath of the trade, he did not know “how to react, how to act, what to say.”
What “embrace the moment” also signified was freeing himself from blame and uncertainty.
Instead of dwelling on what he lost, his home in Dallas, longtime relationships with teammates, or the sense of identity that came with being “a Maverick“, he focused on what he still controlled: his preparation, attitude, and performance.
Sasa pointed out that from the moment Luka arrived in Los Angeles, he began training harder, improving his physical readiness, and showing up in better shape.
“When you train well, you can immediately see it in the physical appearance,” Sasa said.
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