Luka Doncic shares Lakers’ offseason reality with LeBron James: ‘We ain’t close’

There is a lot of uncertainty swirling around the Lakers now.

The team is coming off a 2025-26 campaign that ended with it getting swept by the Thunder in the second round of the NBA playoffs. What’s more, superstar forward LeBron James is an unrestricted free agent. Standout guard Austin Reaves is expected to decline his player option but can agree to a deal with LA prior to the start of free agency July 1.

There’s a case to be made that even though the Lakers haven’t made a deep playoff run since Luka Doncic was traded to Los Angeles, there are few better places for LeBron to succeed than with the Lakers, especially because he has a good dynamic with Doncic on and off the court.

As for Doncic, he’s under contract with the Lakers for two more seasons and therefore isn’t going anywhere. Well, he did go back to Slovenia, his home country, for the offseason to spend time with his family.

And comments he made in a recent interview with prominent Slovenian news site 24ur.com are catching attention.

At one point in the interview, Doncic was asked in Slovenian whether he and LeBron had ever played golf 1-on-1.

“We played once or twice. Right now, [it’s] a bit harder cause we ain’t close,” Doncic said. While his answer was in Slovenian, it was translated to English by X user @LukaUpdates, where it has now gone viral on social media.

It’s important to note that Doncic is referring to the literal distance between he and LeBron, given that he’s in Slovenia while LeBron is still in the United States. This is what he meant when saying a translated version of “we ain’t close.”

Still, this answer has already drawn a lot of attention. Lakers fans will hope these two can reconnect for a round of golf at some point, if only so Doncic can help convince LeBron to re-sign with Los Angeles.