Luka Doncic made Marcus Smart a believer in joining the Lakers

A call came from Luka Doncic a couple of times, at first making Marcus Smart think it wasn’t true and then eventually making him believe that Doncic was a Lakers salesman and that he wanted Smart to be a part of what they were building here in Los Angeles.

It wasn’t like they had a strong “relationship,” but Smart said he and Doncic have “a mutual understanding and respect for each other” from meeting on the court in past seasons.

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So, when the calls came while Smart was training while trying to figure out his next move after he had agreed to a contract buyout from the Washington Wizards, he was swayed by Doncic to join the Lakers after clearing waivers.

Smart, who signed a two-year deal for $11 million with the Lakers, with a player option for the second season, smiled as he told the stories during his introductory news conference Tuesday about talking to Doncic and being persuaded to join him and LeBron James.

“It first came, my agent, I’m working out, and I get a call from my agent saying, you know, ‘Hey Luka reached out.’ And I’m like ‘yeah whatever’ you know?’ Like all right,” Smart said at the Lakers’ practice facility. “And then another day, same thing — Luka reached out again and now it’s real. It’s no longer what-ifs. It’s real and it’s something we need to talk about. And that was a great feeling, like I said, and that’s kind of what kind of got things going for me to be here and I’m excited to be here.”

The Lakers were in need of a point-of-attack perimeter defender such as Smart, especially with Dorian Finney-Smith going to Houston.

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Smart was the NBA’s defensive player of the year in 2022 when he played for the Boston Celtics and has been on the NBA’s All-Defensive first team three times.

Knowing that Doncic and James are “two greats with [the] greatest basketball IQs that I’ve ever seen in this era”…