NBA star Luka Dončić credits pickleball for offseason weight loss
Last Edited
Jul 29 2025
Category
News
After being traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers last season and catching heat for being out of shape, NBA star Luka Dončić has been focused on his fitness this offseason.
Somewhat surprisingly, he credits pickleball as part of his turnaround.
In a recent story by MensHealth, Dončić revealed that he has spent more time this summer training off the basketball court than in the past. He has filled the time with a weights routine that helped him build total-body strength and he eventually found a distraction playing pickleball and padel.
Dončić said the new games were a blast from his childhood past, long before he fell in love with basketball. They challenged new muscles, took pressure off of his knees -- thanks to fewer vertical jumps -- while also strengthening adductors, glutes, and ankles with footwork.
“At the beginning, it was hard,” he said in the article. “I can’t be without basketball. But when I was a little kid, I played a lot of sports.”
He has channeled that era this summer — and maintained his competitive fire in the process.
“There were a lot of angry moments, too, when we would lose,” he says. “But I didn’t lose much.”
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