Austin Reaves Opens Up on His Relationship With LeBron James

The Los Angeles Lakers' season ended Monday night the way nobody in that building wanted it to.

Oklahoma City completed a four-game sweep in the Western Conference Semifinals, and the locker room was full of questions about what happens next.

Most of them were aimed at LeBron James.

But it was Austin Reaves who gave the most honest answer of the night.

"My rookie year, I had no idea what the heck was going on," Reaves told reporters. "He basically took me under his wing and gave me every opportunity that I could ever ask for. He trusted me. Further than the court, we've built a real friendship."

Reaves came into the league in 2021 as an undrafted free agent out of Oklahoma, and nothing about his rise with the Los Angeles Lakers was a sure thing.

He turned down second-round opportunities from other teams just to get a shot with the Lakers, where he showed up as a 23-year-old rookie trying to figure it out next to one of the greatest players to ever live.

LeBron could have ignored him. Instead, he pulled Reaves into the fold early, got him involved in plays, trusted him in big spots and pushed the coaching staff to give him real minutes.

When a player of LeBron's caliber vouches for a kid like that, the rest of the organization listens.

Five seasons later, their bond stretches well past basketball.

Reaves mentioned that LeBron has picked up golf recently, and that it's brought them even closer away from the court. "It's been super fun, and I hope to continue to do that," Reaves said. "He's taught me a lot. I owe him a lot for my career."

The on-court side of that growth hit a new level this year.

Reaves averaged 23.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game across 51 regular season appearances, shooting 49.0 percent from the field as the second-leading scorer on a Lakers team that finished 53-29 and fourth in the Western Conference.

Even in the Game 4 loss that ended their season, Reaves led everyone with 27 points and had a potential game-tying three in the final seconds that just barely caught the rim and fell off.

Now both players face offseasons with more questions than answers.

LeBron put up 20.9 points, 7.2 assists and 6.1 rebounds this season in his 23rd year, but he's 41 and hasn't committed to playing again.

Reaves holds a $14.9 million player option for next season that he is expected to decline in order to test free agency and chase the bigger payday his production warrants.

Asked if he wants to keep playing alongside LeBron, Reaves didn't think twice. "It would mean the world to me," he said. "I don't know anything different."

Monday might have been their last game as teammates.

Reaves seems to understand that, and he wanted to make sure people knew what LeBron meant to him before the summer pulls them in different directions.