Luka Dončić addressed Los Angeles Lakers fans directly on Wednesday in a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times, hours before the team opens the 2026-27 season at home against the Golden State Warriors. Written as a letter to the city, the ad sets a goal for the season and makes an appeal to the fan base.

Dan Woike, who covers the Lakers for The Athletic, shared the ad on X this morning, and fans were quick to respond. Several embraced the message.

Luka Dončić Sets a Championship Goal in Print

The letter states that goal in its opening lines. “Dear LA, Tonight we start our run for a championship. Every player dreams of holding that trophy. To do it for all of you amazing fans would mean everything to us,” Dončić wrote.

From there, the Lakers’ No. 77 turned to the franchise’s past: “Each of us understands what it means to put on this purple and gold jersey and follow the players who wore it before us. It means so much because of the passion and dedication that generations of you all have shown for this team.”

Woike kept his post to a single line: “A full page ad from Luka Dončić is in today’s LA Times.”

Dončić wrote much of the letter in the plural, speaking for the roster as a whole. Seven minutes after Woike’s post, one fan responded to the letter’s first line: “Wow…Lakers finally have a leader that isn’t afraid to set actual championship expectations.”

The gesture itself stood out to another fan: “Y’all realize Luka ain’t ever done this before no? Yea man this year is 100% different.”

Another fan made it about Dončić himself: “they will never make me hate luka doncic bro … u with us for life”

Dončić, who joined the Lakers in a February 2025 trade with the Dallas Mavericks, turned personal later in the letter: “From the moment I arrived in LA, you welcomed me with open arms. That is something I will never forget. So here is my promise to you: we are going to give you everything we have, every single night. No excuses. No nights off. But we cannot do this alone. You are the best fans in the world, and we are going to need you. Every game, bring it with us. Let’s go.”

The promise drew skepticism from another fan: “Where was this dedication at the last two years?”

The Lakers’ first two seasons with Dončić both ended in the playoffs, although he missed the entire 2026 postseason with a hamstring injury. Months after the trade, the Minnesota Timberwolves eliminated the Lakers in five games in the first round in 2025.

Last season, his first full one in Los Angeles, Dončić played through a tweaked left hamstring in an April 2 game against the Oklahoma City Thunder and, in the third quarter, suffered a Grade 2 strain that ended his season.

The Lakers beat the Houston Rockets in six games in the first round without him before the Thunder swept them in the second round in May.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix ahead of this season, Dončić looked back on staying in that game: “I think we had a team that could compete for the championship. I definitely regret it.”

Tipoff against the Warriors at Crypto.com Arena is set for 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET).