Luka Dončić is taking charge of the Lakers this season, and that begins with him organizing the entire roster to attend a mini-camp in Slovenia.
Well, almost everyone.
While the trip has made it out of the group chat and will be happening this August, one notable player will be absent: rookie Cameron Carr.
On Monday, Marc Stein reported in his newsletter “The Stein Line” that Carr will be missing the event due to his NBA-mandated rookie orientation.
The aforementioned Dončić has chartered a plane and
is paying the full bill to fly and host every single Lakers teammate in his native Slovenia later this month. I’m told that 16 of the 17 players on the Lakers’ roster not named Dončić — from Austin Reaves to Walker Kessler to Bronny James to two-way signees Arthur Kaluma, Chris Mañon and AK Okereke –have all committed to attend.
League sources say it would have been 17 of 17 if just drafted swingman Cameron Carr wasn’t required to participate in an official NBA rookie orientation that conflicts with what Dončić is calling a “team bonding trip.”
It’s a bummer that Carr will be the only Laker to miss this event. This is the first opportunity for the entire team to be together and begin bonding.
However, he’s also a rookie, and the NBA has this orientation in place for a reason. This is the beginning of Carr’s professional career, and there are a ton of things for him to adjust to.
Rashad Grove wrote a piece for BET last year about the NBA’s Rookie Transition Program, which included the Executive Vice President of Operations of the National Basketball Players Association, Morgan Cato, explaining the importance of this orientation.
Following the Summer League, the rookies will gather for part two of the program in August to expand upon everything they’ve learned during Summer League. According to Cato, the RTP is an alignment with the Player’s Association’s mission, which is “to protect and advance the rights of our players. They are the game.”
“In late August, all of the players will go a bit deeper into everything from media training and engagement to financial literacy to officiating,” Cato said. “It’s more of an intense exposure where they get to work on team building and communication,” Cato said. “By the time they’re ready for training camp, they know exactly what to expect.”
As good as it’d be for Carr to be in Slovenia with the Lakers, he can’t miss this event. Perhaps he can still remain in touch with his peers and talk with them about what’s going on during his downtime.
Carr missing this trip won’t derail his career in any way. He’ll have weeks of training camp to get used to his teammates and bond with them.
Hopefully in the future, Luka can schedule these kinds of things when no one has any conflicts. As anyone who has ever planned anything with multiple people knows, though, that’s easier said than done.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
