Austin Reaves thinks the way Lakers fans once viewed LeBron James helps explain why Luka Doncic gets a different kind of welcome in Los Angeles.
In a feature published Wednesday by Melissa Rohlin of the California Post, Reaves drew a line between the Bryant-James rivalry and the reaction Doncic can expect from Lakers fans. He said the old Kobe-versus-LeBron debate left some fans with a built-in bias.
“I think with the Bron situation it was a little different just because Bron and Kobe were battling for the best player in the NBA for multiple years, so Lakers fans at the time probably hated LeBron,” Reaves said. “Not that they didn’t accept him when he was here, but they still probably had the ‘Kobe is better’ type of mentality.
Reaves added that Doncic doesn’t walk into that same baggage.
“But they don’t have that with Luka,” Reaves said. “He was kind of after Kobe. They don’t have a reason not to embrace him like a Kobe or someone else who was a Laker legend.”
That view carries extra weight coming from Reaves, who has lived on both sides of that divide. Long before he became James’ teammate, he was a teenager riding with Bryant and taking shots at James online.
In 2012, Reaves posted a Facebook joke featuring Bryant that mocked James for not having a championship. The post resurfaced years later, after Reaves was already sharing a locker room with the player he had poked fun at.
Reaves ended up talking it through with James, and James laughed it off.
He later retold the moment on “All The Smoke,” describing how awkward it felt to see the old post pop back up while he was in the league with James. “When I first seen it, we were in New Orleans,” said Reaves.
“It was right after the game. I don’t think he or I played, and I got on my phone after the game after Coach got done talking.
And it was the first thing I seen, and I was like, ‘F-.’ Bron was over there in his locker and I was like, ‘Bron, come here man.’
He comes over and I was like, ‘I was a Kobe fan. I was s--- on you in 2012.
But have you seen this?’ And he was like, ‘No’ and just started laughing.”
That backstory makes Reaves a pretty useful witness here. He knows what it looks like to grow up as a Kobe fan, and he knows what it’s like to build a real relationship with James anyway. So when he talks about Lakers fans carrying old loyalties into the present, he’s not speaking from the outside.
His appreciation for James has also shown up in basketball terms, not just personal ones. In 2023, Reaves described a possession where he had already decided to get James the ball coming off a screen, only to realize the defense had given him something better. James’ message was simple: make the right play and let him adapt.
“He came up to me and was like, ‘Don’t worry about getting me the ball,” said James. “I’m going to find obviously ways to impact the game and I’m going to do what I do.
Just be yourself. And take what the defense gives you.'”
That kind of guidance matters for a young guard next to a star as decorated as James. The best player in the building is not always the one you should force the ball to.
Reaves was still talking about James in glowing terms as recently as March 2026, when the two were playing alongside Doncic. Reaves pointed to James working behind the defense in ball-screen action and making plays on the offensive glass.
“He’s one of the smartest guys to ever play the game of basketball,” Reaves said. “His ability to adapt and to figure out what the game needs is second to none.”
James’ run with the Lakers also stands on its own. He won the 2020 championship and Finals MVP award, reached the 2023 Western Conference finals, and made eight All-Star teams and seven All-NBA teams during his time in Los Angeles.
Doncic, meanwhile, has already shown his own awareness of Bryant’s place in the city. In April 2025, he donated $5,000 to help restore a vandalized downtown Los Angeles mural of Kobe and Gianna Bryant, covering the full fundraising goal set by artist Louie Palsino.
So when Reaves talks about fans embracing Doncic more easily than they once did James, it’s not just theory. It’s part old rivalry, part new era, and part the way the Lakers keep carrying Bryant’s legacy into whatever comes next.
The bigger basketball questions are still hanging out there too, including Stephen A. Smith’s doubts about the Lakers improving without James. But Doncic told Rohlin he started feeling at home during last year’s training camp, and he also said he hoped to retire with the Lakers, while acknowledging how uncertain NBA careers can be.
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