After eight years of James being the Lakers’ leader, the role now will be shared by Doncic and Reaves.
Doncic already took a step in that direction when he invited his teammates to his home country of Slovenia in August for a bonding trip.
Reaves chided Doncic about losing in rowing, bowling and golf while they were in Slovenia together.
Reminded about it Monday at the Lakers’ media day, Doncic immediately retorted: “I beat him in golf two days ago. … He didn’t say that, huh?”
Doncic paused and smiled.
“The key was I was playing great golf,” Doncic said. “He gave me some strokes, I’m not going to lie — as he should.”
Reaves spoke about the events his group won in Slovenia and how they beat Doncic in the process.
“We won the rowing, we won the golf, we won bowling,” Reaves said. “Luka tried to put on a blue shirt when his rowing team lost, which is crazy. But he did host us, so we let him hold the first-place trophy for once.”
The two friends and teammates have developed a closeness that their teammates have noticed.
“They get along so well that it’s kind of easy for them to co-lead this team — in different ways sometimes,” Jake LaRavia said. “I think sometimes Luka leads by example and we watch him and we watch how he goes about himself. AR can sometimes be a bit more vocal. But I think they both do a great job at what they are good at it when it comes to being leaders for this team.”
Lakers guard Luka Doncic speaks during the team’s media day in El Segundo on Monday.
(Eric Thaye r/ Los Angeles Times)
Doncic led the NBA in scoring last season (33.5 points per game) and was third in assists (8.3). He averaged 7.7 rebounds and shot 47.6%, including 36.6% from three-point range.
The three-year, $165-million contract extension Doncic signed last year kicked in this season.
“Obviously, it’s a new challenge,” he said about his leadership role. “I was in this position in my career a lot of times, so it’s not new to me. But I feel great, I feel excited, and like I said, I’m ready to go. It’s been a long time since I played basketball, so I’m ready.”
Reaves is entering his sixth season with the Lakers, making him the longest-tenured player on the team. In June, he signed a four-year, $180-million deal, the largest contract for an undrafted player in NBA history.
Reaves earned it by averaging career-highs in points (23.2) and rebounds (4.7).
The Lakers have nine new players and Reaves knows he’ll need to provide guidance.
“I think it’s different for everybody,” Reaves said. “I’m not going to lead the same way Bron does. I’m not going to lead the same way Luka does. I like to do things a little different. I was talking about doing more one-on-one conversations. There will be times where I need to speak up in group settings and I’ll do that when the time comes. But I think you just got to be true to yourself and do what’s comfortable for you.”
Doncic played in just 64 games last season. He missed the last five regular-season games and all of the playoffs with a left hamstring strain. After spending time in Europe rehabbing his hamstring over the summer, Doncic said he’s healthy and ready to go with no restrictions when the Lakers begin training camp Tuesday.
“I know I had a lot of time, just taking it slowly, not taking no risks,” Doncic said. “But right now, I’m feeling great. I feel rested. Mentally I feel great, so I can’t wait just to start.”
With Walker Kessler, Quentin Grimes, Jaden Hardy, Kevon Looney, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Collin Sexton, Matisse Thybulle and Ziaire Williams among the newcomers on the Lakers, Doncic and Reaves are looking forward to what comes next.
“I like everybody that we signed,” Doncic said. “I think there’s a lot of underrated guys. … Now training camp is going to help us a lot, focus on basketball, get to know what they like on the court, but I’m very excited to play with all of them.”
Sebastien Pocognoli’s first match in charge of Scotland ends in a goalless draw against Slovenia as they are made to rue several missed chances in Ljubljana.
If you love a pint after a long day of sightseeing then this city break is a must-visit for autumn. Its self-serve beer fountain means you can try beers from across the region for just a few Euros
The town is just 90 minutes from Ljubljana by train(Image: Getty Images/RooM RF)
After a long day of exploring a new destination, the highlight of a city break for many of us is sitting in the town square, enjoying a nice cold pint of local, reasonably-priced beer.
And if you visit a small, but charming Slovenian town, you can not only order a pint, but pour your own from a ‘beer fountain’ that offers a variety of local brews to sample.
Žalec in the Lower Savinja Valley is a town that’s beer-obsessed. Even its coat of arms features a beer hop. The region is known as the Valley of Green Gold, named for the color of hops as they ripen in the sun, and it has 150 years of beer-making experience.
Next to Žalec’s marketplace lies the Green Gold Fountain, a unique attraction composed of a variety of shiny silver beer taps. Visitors buy a small glass for €12, just over £10, which pays for the souvenir glass plus six 100ml tastings of various local beers. The cups come with a chip, which is scanned by the fountain, so you can serve yourself.
The fountain opened in March and is set to run through October, so visitors can make the most of the crisp autumn weather while they sample local beers. The 150-year anniversary means there will be a larger variety of ales this year, with 34 craft beers from 25 Slovenian breweries expected to be on tap.
Alex Dyer, a managing director at Ski Famille, highlighted the unusual spot. He said: “The fountain is memorable enough to be one part of the day without making beer the whole purpose of a family visit. I think parents will enjoy the stop more when younger travellers have something of their own to look forward to nearby, because that keeps the day balanced rather than leaving anyone waiting around.”
The town’s visitors can also follow an official tourist route called the Path from Hops to Beer, which is just over 3-miles long, taking in a Roman necropolis and caves along the way. Once you’re back in town, the Eco-Museum of Hop-Growing and Brewing Industry is an interactive way to learn about the town’s proud heritage.
Visitors from the UK can fly from London, Manchester, or Edinburgh to Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana, which takes just two hours and 20 minutes, making it perfect for a short weekend break. EasyJet has flights in October to Ljubljana from £45.99 one-way.
Žalec is less than an hour from the capital by car, taking you down some seriously steep mountain roads and through the untouched Slovenian countryside. But a more relaxed alternative is the 90-minute train ride, which runs along the River Sava in parts, taking you past charming traditional villages as you head to beer country.
Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com
‘Achtung! Staatsgrenze!” OK, the signpost marking the “state border” didn’t have exclamation marks but, with its no-nonsense Prussian font, it did feel quite shouty. The only thing was, no one on the Feistritzer Alm – a peaceful sweep of Alpine pasture at the meeting of Austria and Italy – was paying any attention to it at all.
Hikers hiked straight past. Mountain bikers used it to prop up their cycles. Cows grazed willy-nilly. And the patrons of the Schutzhütte Oisternig enjoyed their cold beers regardless of which country they were in. While official boundaries may have changed in these parts over the centuries, the magnificence of the mountains has not.
My husband and I had woken that morning in Austria, in the Carinthian village of Feistritz. After breakfast at the old Gasthof Alte Post, we’d bought a loaf from the bäckerei, climbed past the 15th-century church as its bells called worshippers for prayers and continued up through pine forest to these high Alpine meadows – and into Italy.
We were hiking the Alpe Adria, a long-distance trail jointly developed by Austria, Slovenia and Italy that runs from the foot of Grossglockner (Austria’s highest mountain at 3,798 metres) to the Adriatic coast. At 750km (466 miles), the full trail is too long for most people’s summer holidays. But a 135km (84 mile) loop – moderate-graded, doable in a week, with walking days of 15-24km (9-15 miles) – has been created where the three nations meet, to offer a multicultural taster. It’s an appealing idea; hikers love circuiting multiple countries – just look at the numbers crowding the Tour du Mont Blanc these days. While the Alpe Adria loop isn’t quite as dramatic as that, it does offer a much quieter alternative.
The writer near the Vratca Pass.
We started our journey by catching an early Eurostar to Amsterdam, where there was time for canals, beer and crispy bitterballen before boarding the Nightjet sleeper to Salzburg. In our adjoining capsule-like cabins, we watched the Netherlands segue into Germany, and woke at dawn to pasture, pines and peaks. On the final train from Salzburg to Villach, where we were beginning the loop, the Alps pressed closer, drawing us in.
Now, on the Feistritzer Alm, a day and a half into the walk, Austria was behind us (for the time being) and Italy beckoned, beautifully. Just around the hill from the Schutzhütte Oisternig sat the chapel of Our Lady of the Snows (or the Chiesa Madonna della Neve/Almkapelle Maria Schnee, depending on your linguistic preferences); beyond spread deep-green foothills and the jagged Julian Alps, sawing into a hot-blue sky.
From here, the rest of the day was all downhill, a drop through blessed shade and butterflies, on paths weaving through the pines and peeping out to the peaks, to end in the village of Valbruna, at the Valbruna Inn. We had a wonderful room, and spent time on our balcony, gazing past the geraniums to the sheer Jôf Fuart range, which reaches up to 2,666 metres.
We also spent time in the hotel’s Julius Kugy Library, a cosy den of books on alpinism, named after a writer-mountaineer legend. Born in 1858 to a Slovenian family in Gorizia – then part of the Austrian empire, now in Italy – Kugy is credited with opening up the Julian Alps. He never lost his reverence for nature, always encouraging others to explore with respect, curiosity and awe. I picked up one of his books and read from his introduction: “[This] tries to describe the mountains as a source of happiness, because such they were in my life.”
I couldn’t have agreed more and, with great happiness, we continued the next morning, following the Alpe Adria from Valbruna, across the Saisera River and up through fir and spruce to the Sanctuary of Monte Lussari, a ridge-top pilgrim church and hamlet, where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in 1360. I was less moved by the miracle, or the shops selling branded tote bags, liqueurs and slippers, than by the mountains scattered far and wide. We lingered to enjoy the view, then descended via alpenrose and ambling goats to Tarvisio, finding a different kind of happiness in the town’s gelaterias. Then, later that evening, we sat with cold beers on our balcony at the Hotel Nevada, watching as a storm crashed through, briefly erasing every mountain.
The village of Monte Lussari. Photograph: Marco Lissoni/Alamy
The next day brought more joy as the trail took us along the woodland-weaving Sentiero del Orso and then via a busy cycle path to the Fusine lakes. These twin glacial bowls are so arrestingly blue-green you’d think they’d been AI-ed if you weren’t standing right there. We found a quiet spot to picnic, listening to the whinnying of little grebes and staring beyond the dazzling water to the afternoon’s challenge via the rocks ahead: the haul up to Rifugio Zacchi.
The Alpe Adria loop usually ends each day in a valley bottom, where there are plenty of inns. But not tonight. Zacchi sits at 1,380 metres, tight-hugged by the intimidating peaks that mark the Slovenian border. After a muggy, magical ascent through forest to the refuge, I sat on the terrace, drinking a superb Aperol spritz, and stared at them, transfixed; a few booms of thunder rippled, just in case the power of nature had been in doubt.
The blue-green Fusine lakes. Photograph: Liubomir Paut-Fluerasu/Alamy
The food at Zacchi was excellent – venison ragù, chargrilled peppers, potato-pancake-like frico, made with local montasio cheese. Also excellent was the fact that, in a stroke of luck, we had a dorm to ourselves. We woke, refreshed and ready for the next border hop.
The most striking route would have been over the forbidding-looking Vratca Pass. The Alpe Adria took us there, for views east into Triglav national park, but didn’t cross. Instead, the trail backtracked down on the Italian side to follow a path through the verdant Sava Valley to the outdoorsy town of Kranjska Gora.
It was a pleasant entrance into Slovenia; however, our exit was spectacular. To get back to Austria the next day, we had to cross the Karavanke Alps and conquer the highest point of our route, the 1,842-metre Schwarzkogel. It was an unrelenting climb, at first amid pasture and shingle roofs, with sublime views to the Julian peaks, then deep in forest serenaded by thrushes, streams trickling to our side.
As we neared the top, we could see south across Slovenia’s surging summits, north across Carinthia’s electric-blue lakes and low hills. Squat white marker-stones began to appear too, strung along the ridge’s spine – an international border marked more casually than most front gardens. We slalomed between the posts, enjoying both the freedom of movement and the majesty of nature. For millennia the Alps have been physical and cultural barriers. The Alpe Adria is a bringing together; a source of mountain happiness.
The trip was provided by Walks Worldwide; the eight-day, self-guided Alpe Adria Tri-Country Trek is from £895 B&B. Accommodation in London was provided by Generator (rooms from £75, dorm beds from £11)
LJUBLIJANA: A chill has set in between much of Europe and Israel recently over its treatment of Palestinians, but the Alpine nation of Slovenia is bucking the trend.
Under nationalist Prime Minister Janez Jansa Slovenia is launching a diplomatic reset of its relationship with Israel, which will send its foreign minister to open its first embassy in Ljubljana on Wednesday.
It is an about-face from the policies of the previous centre-left government, which had been one of the EU’s most critical voices on Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, which it described as “genocide”.
And it comes a day after the United Kingdom and other European countries provoked Israeli fury by banning imports from settlements in the occupied West Bank — the latest move by European governments grappling with growing international condemnation of Israeli policies towards Palestinians.
But in Slovenia, Jansa – who took office for the fourth time earlier this year, and who is often at loggerheads with the European Union – has instead received Israeli accolades for defying the EU over the West Bank settlements.
“Thank you PM Jansa for your courage and clarity amidst EU hypocrisy,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X late last month, after Slovenia vetoed an EU statement condemning the settlements.
Under Jansa, Slovenia has also reversed its own ban on imports from the settlements, lifted its arms embargo on Israel and scrapped entry bans on Netanyahu and two of his ministers.
In his first official visit to the country, Israel’s top diplomat Gideon Saar will inaugurate the embassy Wednesday, with his ministry describing Jansa as a “friend of Israel”.
Jansa has said his government was “only normalising Slovenia’s foreign policy and fixing the damage” caused by liberal ex-prime minister Robert Golob.
“To fulfil its priority of improving the well-being of Slovenians, the government will carry out pragmatic policies,” Jansa said in another post earlier.
‘Instrument’
Not all Slovenians are on board, however.
A poll conducted by the daily newspaper Delo in June found that 56 percent of Slovenians opposed closer ties with Israel, while 14 percent supported them.
Several rights groups have announced protests against the embassy’s inauguration, which has also drawn sharp criticism from the opposition.
Golob’s party has described the new embassy as “a return of the favour” for Israel’s alleged support of Jansa during the March election.
The last days of campaigning ahead of the March 22 vote were overshadowed by claims of foreign interference, with authorities probing whether Israeli company Black Cube was behind secretly recorded videos alleging graft in Golob’s government.
Jansa – who faced accusations his party was linked to the videos – has admitted to having met a Black Cube official, but denied being behind the videos.
Daily Dnevnik’s columnist Darijan Kosir in a weekend commentary said Jansa was serving “as the US-Israel’s Trojan horse” in the EU, taking the place of Viktor Orban, Hungary’s long-time premier who lost April elections.
Former president Danilo Turk told AFP that Slovenia has “become an instrument of Israeli policy”.
“This is a very uncomfortable situation,” said Turk, an International Law professor at Ljubljana University.
