Luka Doncic shared a message to his daughters Sunday as his summer in Slovenia gave way to preparations for another season with the Los Angeles Lakers.
In a Sept. 20 Instagram post addressed to Gabriela and Olivia, Doncic wrote that he carries his daughters with him wherever he goes. He had returned to Los Angeles after spending much of the summer in his home country.
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“Wherever I go, you are always with me. I love you!” Doncic wrote in Slovenian, translated into English.
He opened the caption with their initials, G+O, and told them that distance would not change the place they hold in his heart. He ended the post with two heart emojis.
The message offered a personal glimpse of Doncic’s offseason as the Lakers approach the start of organized preparations. It contained no basketball announcement, focusing instead on his love for his daughters.
Luka Doncic’s family message follows a summer in Slovenia
Family had already played a public role in Doncic’s summer plans. In May, Reuters reported that he would sit out Slovenia’s national-team schedule to prioritize time with his daughters.
That decision followed a difficult finish to the Lakers’ 2025-26 season, when a left-hamstring injury kept him out of the playoffs.
Sunday’s post was a new expression of that attachment as his attention turns toward the upcoming NBA season. The caption spoke directly to his children, with no update on his earlier family circumstances.
His time in Slovenia also included work toward his basketball return with conditioning and court work in Ljubljana in September. Doncic had gathered Lakers teammates in Ljubljana the previous month for time together and two informal practices.
That gathering gave the group an opportunity to establish some familiarity before the formal preseason. It also placed part of the Lakers’ offseason in the same city where Doncic was spending his summer, bringing teammates together before the next phase of their work in Los Angeles.
Lakers media day is approaching
Lakers media day is scheduled for Sept. 28, eight days after Doncic’s Instagram post. The NBA lists Sept. 29 as the opening of training camps.
Those dates give his return an immediate basketball backdrop. The Lakers will soon move from individual preparation and informal workouts into the practices that shape their rotation, with coach JJ Redick evaluating how the pieces around Doncic fit together.
As outlined in Lakers Daily’s earlier depth-chart breakdown, the discussion extends beyond Doncic, Austin Reaves and Walker Kessler. There are decisions to make about complementary lineups and how to distribute opportunities among the supporting players.
One question is how the offense will operate when Doncic rests. Collin Sexton’s potential impact off the bench is part of that discussion, giving the Lakers another player to consider when organizing their scoring responsibilities.
Camp will provide a better setting to evaluate those combinations than an offseason projection can. For now, Doncic’s latest public message centered on the people he is thinking about as that work approaches: Gabriela and Olivia.
