The NBA's Los Angeles Lakers held a team-wide pickleball tournament last Friday with forward Jake LaRavia and assistant coach Beau Levesque winning the title.

LaRavia and Levesque defeated star Luka Dončić and player development coach Ty Abbott in the final.

LaRavia spoke to EssentiallySports' NBA insider Mark Medina about his victory.

Here is the Q&A that Medina conducted with the Lakers' rising star.

Can you give me the play-by-play on how you and Beau won the pickleball tournament?

LaRavia: “Domination down the line. Beau and I were steadily dominating every game. He’s played pickleball before, and I played pickleball this whole summer as a cardio thing. We ended up playing Luka and coach Ty in the Finals. We smacked them.”

Why did the final game play out the way it did?

LaRavia: “A lot of great shots by me and a lot of great shots by Beau. And a lot of missed shots by those two guys.”

What was the trash talk like?

LaRavia: “We were dominating so much that there wasn’t even the ability for the opposing team to trash talk. Beau and I were keeping it low-key. We weren’t saying too much.”

You had the chance to rub it in, though!

LaRavia: “Yeah, for sure. I’ll rub it into Luka sometimes. But I mostly just leave it alone.”

Just let the play speak for itself?

LaRavia: “Exactly.”

What did you expect going into the tournament?

LaRavia: “I never played pickleball against any of these guys. But I just knew that I played before, and I’ve been pretty good. So I felt good. I thought I had a good chance at winning it all. Then it ended up happening.”

hat was your off-season setup with playing pickleball?

LaRavia: “Yeah, so I was in Toronto all of the offseason with my wife. Her family had gotten into it. So I thought I’ll try it for some cardio. So I would play against my wife and her stepdad in games of 2-on-1. I’m out there running side to side and doing that. That prepared me.”

How did those games go?

LaRavia: “I would win. I would win. It’s a fun sport.”