Recently, the Los Angeles Lakers signed Luka Doncic to a mammoth three-year extension that will keep him with the franchise long term. In order to announce the news, the Lakers held a press conference, which was attended by several members of the team.
Two key players not in attendance were father-and-son duo LeBron and Bronny James.
While Marc Stein reported that LeBron facetimed Doncic to congratulate him on the new contract, sports media giant Dan Patrick was not so forgiving of Bronny's absence.
“If he wants to stay longer after LeBron James leaves… Bronny James should've been there. You're the last guy on the roster; you should be there,” said Patrick, via the Dan Patrick Show.
It's unclear at this point what Bronny James was doing during the press conference, but whatever it was probably won't be a good enough explanation to satisfy Dan Patrick.
Austin Reaves was also noticeably absent from the press conference, but he has been overseas in Asia over the last couple of weeks.
A big commitment from the Lakers
Just days before his new contract was announced, new pictures of Doncic were unearthed by Men's Health Magazine that showed the perennial MVP candidate in his slimmest form since his rookie year, which could be huge news for the Lakers moving forward.
Conditioning and weight concerns have always been Doncic's Achilles heel and were the main reasoning that the Dallas Mavericks gave as their rationale for shockingly trading him last February.
While Doncic did perform well for the most part during his Lakers tenure, he didn't exactly shut down the notion that his conditioning could use improvement during Los Angeles' first-round playoff exit vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Now that he is in slimmer form, Lakers fans are hoping that this also means there's been an uptick in Doncic's conditioning and stamina, so he's able to close out games just as strongly as he starts them.
If that's the case, Doncic's three-year, $165 million contract extension could end up looking like a bargain at some point down the line.
In any case, the Lakers' schedule will be released later this month.
