Back in 2018, an 18-year-old prodigy left Real Madrid for the NBA Draft, trading the club that developed him for a shot at NBA stardom in Dallas. Eight years later, Luka Doncic has gone the opposite direction for someone else, personally helping steer a teammate out of the NBA and into the exact club he once left behind.

Doncic played a direct role in convincing former LA Lakers guard Nick Smith Jr. to sign with Real Madrid, according to club basketball director Juan Carlos Sanchez.

“We had a lot of help getting him signed,” Sanchez said on Real Madrid TV, via AS.com. “People lent us a hand. Luka Doncic spoke fantastically about him — since the two were teammates with the Los Angeles Lakers — and he also reached out to him directly.”

Sanchez didn’t downplay how much work it took to actually close the deal, despite Doncic’s direct involvement. “Herreros and Rudy spoke with Nick Smith many times, as did Pedro Martinez,” Sanchez said, referencing club executives Alberto Herreros and Rudy Fernandez alongside head coach Pedro Martinez, all of whom were brought in to help recruit Smith.

“We convinced him. And I’ll tell you that he was the hardest signing we’ve ever had to pull off. We spent no fewer than twenty days insisting to his agents, to him, to his girlfriend.” Sanchez closed with clear optimism about what the signing could become. “In the end, he made a decision that I think is the right one for both him and us. We’re going to try to enjoy his game and help him unleash all the potential he has inside.”

The recruitment required that level of persistence partly because Smith’s situation in the NBA had grown difficult to salvage. A 2023 first-round pick out of Arkansas, Smith spent two seasons with the Charlotte Hornets before being waived and signing a two-way deal with the Lakers in September 2025.

He spent most of that season bouncing between the Lakers and their G League affiliate, South Bay. An injury-driven period – with both Doncic and Austin Reaves banged up – pushed the Lakers to elevate him to a standard contract and add him to their 2026 playoff roster.

Over 30 games with Los Angeles, Smith averaged 6.2 points, 1.0 assist and 0.8 rebounds in 12.5 minutes per night, shooting an efficient 39.5% from three. Despite the flashes, the Lakers declined his team option for 2026-27 in late June, and with a crowded backcourt already forming around Luka Doncic, no other NBA team stepped in to offer him a clear opportunity either.

Smith’s Own Account of Doncic’s Advice

Smith later confirmed the extent of Doncic’s influence, though he was careful to frame it as encouragement rather than outright persuasion. “It didn’t influence my decision, but he always talked about Real Madrid, the EuroLeague, and everything it represents,” Smith said. “He always said the NBA was much easier. He talked about it a lot, and I took it as a personal challenge.”

Smith added that he planned to lean on that relationship going forward. “I’ll write to him soon to ask him many things about the city. I’m sure he’s happy for me.”

Smith has already stepped into the exact role Real Madrid brought him in for. He debuted as the team’s lead guard in a EuroLeague loss to Anadolu Efes, where he scored 10 points on efficient shooting in 13 minutes.

The move gives him a path Pelinka and the Lakers weren’t able to offer – real, featured playing time rather than a fight for scraps behind a crowded depth chart. It also ties him into the same developmental pipeline that turned Doncic into a generational NBA talent in the first place. Whether Smith can follow anything close to that trajectory remains to be seen.