Lakers legend James Worthy draws major comparison between Luka Doncic and Magic Johnson

Week by week Luka Doncic is looking more and more settled with Los Angeles Lakers. He has already shown all his talent on the court and has noticeably improved the team’s performance in the 2024-25 season. That has earned him huge praise from NBA legend James Worthy, who compared the Slovenian guard to Magic Johnson.

“Luka, I mean, I haven’t seen anybody like him,” Worthy assured in a conversation on Spectrum SportsNet. “Magic didn’t shoot the three, but I haven’t seen anybody like this kid, since Magic Johnson, control the game like he does… The way he manipulates the game, it’s just amazing how he does it.”

This enormous praise from the three-time NBA champion came after the Lakers‘ 120-108 win over the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night. There, Luka led the team with an impressive 31-point, 8-rebound, 7-assist performance.

“He doesn’t try to outquick you, he uses his size and his strength to get to certain areas. And when he gets into that threat area, you have to respect him. You have to send help, you have to have eyes on him,” Worthy analyzed on Doncic‘s virtues. “That’s when he does his damage: finding open shots, the lobs to both (Jaxson) Hayes and (Christian) Koloko tonight. I think he gets more out of that than scoring himself, being able to find those lobs.”

Lakers legend James Worthy.

Worthy heaps praise on Luka Doncic

James Worthy then talked about how Doncic’s arrival completely changed the Lakers’ outlook for the next few years. “We were thinking about what our future was gonna be like without LeBron if AD (Anthony Davis) was our guy going forward. Obviously (Austin) Reaves was playing well, we had some good potential, but we weren’t quite sure,” the 1988 Finals MVP acknowledged.

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“Until you get a franchise player like Luka at 26, who was just in the NBA Finals, and the Western Conference Finals before that. A dynamic score passer, and has the size, and only 26… He hasn’t even peaked yet,” Worthy said. “Jerry West said you don’t peak until you got 28, 29, 30… I guess it’s kind of crazy to say that the best is yet to come.”

Lakers will be a tough team, Worthy says

James Worthy then talked about expectations in the near future. “All the experts on TV are saying, ‘Oh, my gosh. The Lakers are emerging as a tough team.’ They’re saying that Austin Reaves is the third best team (player) in the league,” he began, showing agreement with those opinions.

“I think that Redick and the coaching staff have done an incredible job in the messaging of how important each possession is. The Lakers are now starting to look the way coach Redick is having them think,” James acknowledged. “The coaching staff is really connecting with the players and it’s showing up on the floor.”

Worthy then highlighted some of the team’s strengths. “They want to play good defense, you can tell. They’re really clamping down collectively on everybody. Steals, blocks, just harassing people,” he said. “The defense is really working for them, but their offense… When you have guys like Austin Reaves and Luka on the floor, and we haven’t got LeBron yet,” the NBA legend concluded, implying that all of that will be enhanced even more with Bron’s return.