LeBron James ‘supportive & understanding’ of Luka Doncic extension + Giannis’ future | First Take

LeBron James ‘supportive & understanding’ of Luka Doncic extension + Giannis’ future | First Take

Lakers star Luca Donuch not only slimmed down over the summer, but he also got a bag. Over the weekend, he signed a three-year, $165 million extension to remain with the purple and gold. The extension includes a player option in the final year, keeping the 26-year-old in LA until at least 2028. This is what Luca had to say about what led to his decision. It’s an honor. you know, playing for this organization. Many, many great players played here. So, obviously, I want to add one more up there. Uh, so that’s what we’re working for. Honestly, I think we have a great team. Uh, we have what we need to compete for the championship. I’ll try to win every game no matter what. And, you know, we got some new great guys uh being on the team and you know, we’re going to go for it. Love skinny Luca. We now bring in senior NBA insider Sham Shirania to break down what this all means. Shams, why now? Why did this get done? Kimberly, in a lot of ways, this was the official coronation of Luca Donuch as the face of this Lakers organization, this franchise moving forward. But from a business perspective, that’s really why this was done. Three years, $165 million with that Dallas Mavericks trade 6 months ago in February, Luca Donic lost out on a fyear uh $345 million maximum contract, super max deal that he could have had. So, he misses out on that by signing this three-year deal. Now in 2028, he’s going to be able to opt out. So use these next three years, see what moves can the Lakers make. How can they continue to cement themselves as a championship contender? He can essentially do his own evaluation of the Lakers the next three years. And then from there, he can sign a 5-year, almost $420 million max extension, which allows him to recoup a lot of that money. No one does star players like the Lakers do. So he’s getting a firsthand experience. Saturday night, Jeanie Bus, Mark Walter, the new owner there, Rob Pelinka, all going to Backstreet Boys concert and enjoying their time together. They’re treating Luca Donuch just like they did the first night they got him. He’s the face of the franchise now and they hope for the next decade, but it’s also going to be a great evaluation period for him to see how’s this team putting itself in the position to win a championship. So, a lot of business being done as well. Okay, here’s what I need to know. What does this move mean for LeBron? LeBron James is LeBron James. He’s entering year 23 or an NBA record. No one has played at this level this late into their career. He’s going to be 41 years old in December. So, this is a really delicate balance that the Lakers are playing. On one hand, they’re really uh celebrating their new face to the organization. On the other hand, it’s how do we give LeBron James the respect that he deserves as well as a four-time champion. He’s the one that brought the Lakers a champion. So, it’s been a very delicate balance. LeBron James for his part, he’s been enjoying his summer as we see him playing golf, but I am told he’s been supportive and understanding that the Lakers are moving more toward a Luca Donuch future. Now, what does that mean for LeBron James? He’s opted in. So, technically, he is a Laker. How will he finish his career though? Is he going to play year 23 and finish out in LA and that’s going to be it? At the end of the day, I think the Lakers even understand he’s going to end his career on his own terms. He wants to end his career on his own terms. I think he’s earned the right to do that. We just don’t know what that looks like yet. All right. So, David, I got I got to ask you. We know this extension ties Luca to 2028 at least. Uh but can you see the Lakers winning a championship in the next three years? So, I it’s hard for me to see that right now, especially and it’s not really a thing against the Lakers. It’s most of the fact that Oklahoma City Thunder are in the league right now and they are built to win championships for the foreseeable future. The Lakers have a lot of work to do if they want to figure out how to get this championship going. LeBron is going to be there this year, and we don’t know what’s beyond that, right? So, you got to build stars and bring stars to LA around Luca within this three-year window, and you have to figure out how are you going to climb this mountain of OKC. They’ve resigned everybody. SGA is there, JDub is there, Cadet is there. They’re young, they’re healthy. They’re going to be in that picture for the at least the next three years. So, if you’re the Lakers, you have to have that in mind and you have to think about it’s not going to be just Luca and LeBron beyond this year because we don’t know what LeBron’s future is. You have to figure out what can we build around Luca Donic who is going to be I think MVP caliber for the next few years. What can we build around him to put an actual championship contender in Los Angeles? Now, you know, Shams, I can’t let you leave until I check in regarding something else. Giannis, he’s making waves this offseason, but tell me, what’s the latest? anything more there. As we sit here on August 4th, sources tell me there is nothing set in stone about whether Jansen Dutmpo wants to stay in Milwaukee or whether he wants to leave elsewhere. He’s been evaluating his future this entire off season. I reported way back in miday that he’s open-minded about whether his best fit is in Milwaukee or is it a trade elsewhere. That process has been continuing. There’s been some real conversations he’s having with his inner circle from my understanding. And the one big question that is surrounding Giannis and Dukmpo that’s surrounding his camp is can he win another championship. Is this Bucks roster built for this upcoming season for 2026 27 for him to win another championship his second championship? We know how bad he wants to do that and so only Jansen Dumpo can make that determination and clearly he wants to do it on his own time. I will say this, there are multiple teams that I know of that are literally waiting right now on what decision Giannis into Kmpo makes, waiting to see does he actually hit the market. Training camps don’t start till mid-Sepptemeber. There have been examples in the past. Kyrie Irving was traded to the Boston Celtics in August when he got moved. Damian Lillard was actually traded to Milwaukee in September. So, there are deals that happen late in summers. So, David, you heard Sham say clearly Giannis wants to win a championship. Can he do it to Milwaukee? Should he want out or should he want in? Well, first of all, I it is it is boggles my mind that Milwaukee has made these moves that they have made without Giannis already having bought in. If they if they have made the moves to stretch Dame Lillard and put those $20 million on their cap for the next few years to pay Miles Turner and put that on their cap and Giannis has not already agreed and they haven’t had discussed this with him, this could go down as one of the most fiscally fiscally irresponsible moves that we have seen in the NBA in the last 20 25 years. So I would hope that there’s been some discussion for Giannis to be a part of this team for that to have happened. And if that’s not the case, this is one of the biggest risks that I could imagine a team may deciding to stay or go. If Giannis is deciding based on winning and wanting to win another championship, he needs to go somewhere else. There’s no championship window for him in Milwaukee. The team is not good enough and especially in a even in the East that is weak. The team just is not good enough for him to win a championship. Now, if he wants to stay there emotionally because he loves Milwaukee and Milwaukee loves him, that’s another thing. But if we’re talking about basketball decisions and basketball reasons, Milwaukee should want to move on from Giannis to get the most that they can out of the draft picks and the assets they have for him because there’s no championship there. And Giannis should want to go somewhere else where he can win a championship. If we’re talking just basketball, those are the moves that make the most sense. Give me the last word on that, Sean. So to answer that question, was he consulted? Was he brought? I’m told Jon Dumbo was not consulted before madness. That is and stretched and waved Damon Lillard $113 million in signing Miles Turner. Was he told beforehand? He was told that the deal was happening. But this front office, John Horse, their general manager, he has shown over the really the last three, four, five years that he’s going to make swings whether Giannis and Dutmpo wants him to or not. Clearly, he knows Giannis wants a contender there. So, when he went out and got Damen Lillard, they didn’t consult Giannis before they did that. They just did it. Same thing here with Miles Turner. Now the ultimate decider though is whether that’s good enough is Giannis into DMPO and so we’ll see if he feels like this team is good enough and now why is it so hard for him to get to the point do I stay do I leave it’s 12 years the equity that he’s had there he brought that city a championship there I think it means a lot to him so it’s the really the logic of where this organization’s at versus I think a fairy tale and what he wants as a story book the decision will ultimately be his he has not yet made

Shams Charania joins First Take with David Dennis Jr. and Kimberley A. Martin to break down Luka Doncic’s massive 3-year, $165M extension with the Los Angeles Lakers and what it means for LeBron James. Then, the panel discuss what’s next for Milwaukee Bucks all-star Giannis Antetokounmpo.

0:00 Luka Doncic agrees to 3-yr/$165M extension
1:01 Shams: Lakers treating Luka Doncic as face of the franchise
2:15 Impact to LeBron James
3:28 Los Angeles Lakers in the short-term
4:36 Latest on Giannis Antetokounmpo
6:04 Should Giannis want to stay in Milwaukee?

✔️ Subscribe to ESPN+ http://espnplus.com/youtube
✔️ Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
✔️ Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
✔️ Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/SUBSCRIBEtoNBAonESPN
✔️ Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV

#ESPN #NBA #Lakers #lukadoncic #giannis