This wasn’t the first time Max Christie stood on this court, under the Lakers’ championship banners and its legendary players’ retired jerseys. It wasn’t the first time he basked under the soft, golden lighting bouncing off the Lakers’ logo. It wasn’t the first time he saw the ball swish through the net under the same roof where Kobe Bryant, whose sneakers he wears, did it so many times.
No, Christie had done all of that before. Just this time, he was doing it as a Dallas Maverick.
Christie returned to the building where he began and built his blossoming NBA career, where he worked himself from a second-round draft pick into one of the league’s top young guards, as the Mavericks held a shootaround ahead of Tuesday’s game with the Lakers.
“I didn’t expect to be as, not emotional, but just to feel the feeling that I felt,” Christie said. “Just coming back here and a lot of memories in this place, a lot of memories in this city. It’s cool to be back though. It feels good to be here.”
The Lakers’ shocking trade for Luka Doncic this month sent out Anthony Davis and Christie. Davis, who was injured in his first game as a Maverick, also was back inside Crypto.com Arena for an individual workout. In his absence, Chrsite’s been given a long runway as sort of the Mavericks’ face of this trade, averaging 15.3 points in his first eight games.
“I just feel very invested for the rest of my life in his career,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said Monday. “And he’s someone who, throughout our time together, was given more opportunity and became someone who starred in his role. He has a lot of freedom in Dallas that, frankly, he didn’t have here. At some point, he would have had it here, but I’m really happy to see him succeeding.”
Christie said he returned without any bad feelings for the organization that traded him.
“They really took good care of me, and I appreciate them a ton and still to this day. Again, there’s no bad blood between anybody in the Lakers. I have nothing but love for everybody,” Christie said. “And JJ’s comments obviously mean a lot to me. He’s a coach that really believed in me. He gave me an opportunity and he allowed me to play through a little bit of adversity that I had early in the year. And he trusted me again to put me out on the floor, and that goes a long way for me and my belief in myself. And that’s not just JJ, but everybody on the coaching staff as well. They were awesome to me.”
Tuesday’s game, Christie said, will help provide closure as he begins the next chapter. Since getting to Los Angeles, he went back to his apartment to grab some stuff, went to the beach and grabbed a meal with some friends. He’ll return to a Dallas apartment that still needs to be filled with furniture as part of a team and organization he’s still getting to know.
All of it is a lot to process, but Christie said he’s learned he can handle it.
“Just being able to compartmentalize everything that’s been going on, being able to take all the emotions and leave them off the court,” he said. “And at the end of the day, it is [just] basketball on the court for the last seven or eight games that I’ve been here. For me, just learning more about myself, learning about my resiliency, my toughness, my ability just to play basketball.
“And that’s what I’m pretty good at.”
This story originally appeared on LA Times
