ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith Has Strong Words for Lakers’ Austin Reaves

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith is impressed with Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves.

Smith said Reaves is playing so well for the Lakers that the rising star looks like Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird.

“You got this kid Austin Reaves, looking like ‘The Great White Hope.’ Ballin,” Smith said. “Brother can ball.”

One of Bird’s nicknames was “The Great White Hope.” Obviously, Reaves has a long way to go before we can compare him to Bird, who is one of the greatest players in NBA history. However, it’s evident that Reaves is a talented player.

The Arkansas product was outstanding against the Memphis Grizzlies in Game 1 of the Lakers’ first-round series. Reaves, 24, finished with 23 points while shooting an efficient 8-of-13 from the field and 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.

Reaves, who averaged 13.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists for the Lakers during the regular season, becomes a restricted free agent this summer. The most money Los Angeles can offer “AR” is a four-year, $50.8 million contract if the organization chose to use his Early Bird Rights, according to a March 20 report from Jovan Buha of The Athletic.

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LeBron James Loves Playing With Austin Reaves

Lakers superstar LeBron James loves playing with Reaves, who went undrafted out of Oklahoma and signed a two-way contract with the purple and gold in August 2021. The Lakers converted Reaves’ two-way contract to a regular contract in September 2021 and the rest is history.

“We trust him with the ball in his hands early in the game and late in the game,” James said after the Lakers won Game 1. “So we got something going in the fourth quarter, and after every stop or if we didn’t get a stop or whatever, I think Jaren Jackson went on like a 5-0 run by himself when we went up seven, we went back to AR and just put the ball in his hands, he was able to hit a pull-up two, able to hit a three when they kind of had a soft switch and then hit another pull-up two to put us up eight. So he closed the game for us offensively.”

James, who is arguably the greatest player of all time, knew Reaves would be a good player for the Lakers despite the youngster being an undrafted player.

“Well it’s not surprising to me,” James said about Reaves’ superb play. “I knew from the first practice that we had when we grabbed him that it wasn’t gonna be long, he wasn’t gonna be a two-way player for long. … I’ve been around the game long enough to know great basketball IQ players and I know the type of players that fit with my game and I knew Austin would be that right away.”

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Austin Reaves Wants to Stay With the Lakers

Reaves told Shams Charania of Stadium on April 10 that he wants to re-sign with the Lakers this offseason. Reaves grew up a Kobe Bryant fan.

“Yeah I wanna be a Laker,” Reaves told Charania. “Obviously, they gave me the first opportunity. I was a huge Laker fan growing up. Big Kobe fan. So honestly, just to be able to play for the Lakers organization is special and I wanna be a Laker. So hopefully we can get this done and I can stay there for hopefully my whole career.”

The Lakers are expected to re-sign Reaves in restricted free agency, sources told Heavy Sports.

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