Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Dončić has incorporated racket sports into his training regimen this summer.

Dončić, 26, has been preparing for the 2025-26 NBA season in Croatia with the help of trainer Anže Maček, physiotherapist Javier Barrio, and nutritionist Lucia Almendros.

According to a July 28 story in Men's Health, the trio of experts (affectionately known as "Team Luka") actually sought to reduce the amount of time Dončić spent on the basketball court over the last few months and replace it with other activities instead.

Dončić wasn't exactly thrilled about the move, but he eventually accepted it.

That's where pickleball and padel enter the picture.

"He disagreed at first. But he quickly filled the time with a weights routine that helped him build total-body strength. And he eventually found a distraction playing pickleball and padel, sometimes against friends, sometimes with Barrio and Maček," described writers Andrew Heffernan and Ebenezer Samuel. "For Dončić, the new games were a blast from his childhood past, long before he fell in love with basketball. They challenged new muscles, relieving his knees, thanks to fewer vertical jumps, while strengthening adductors, glutes, and ankles with footwork."

“At the beginning, it was hard,” said Dončić. “I can’t be without basketball. But when I was a little kid, I played a lot of sports.”

Dončić was involved in one of the biggest trades in American sports history when he was shipped from the Dallas Mavericks to the Lakers in February.

He's a five-time NBA All-Star and former NBA Rookie of the Year.

Click here to read the full story on Dončić's physical transformation in Men's Health.