Former Oklahoma Sooner Men’s Basketball player Austin Reaves joined the “All-the-Smoke” Podcast on Showtime and spoke about signing his new multi-million dollar contract. After another productive season with the Lakers, where he appeared in 64 games last season, making 22 starts and proving to be an effective guard in their run to the Western Conference Finals, Reaves earned and signed a four-year, $56 million early bird maximum contract to return to the Los Angeles Lakers. Reaves joined the podcast and spoke about going from an undrafted free agent to a $56-million player and confirmed his draft-day strategy.
“Feels great, like I said, everything comes full circle,” Reaves told podcast host and former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Alexander. “And all I needed was an opportunity, and I knew that. I knew what I was capable of doing, you know, the skill set, IQ and stuff like that. So, it really was just about my agency… put me in a good position to have all of that. We could’ve got drafted 42nd to Detroit, but kind of declined that to put me in LA for a better spot.”The 6-foot-5 point guard waited about 10 minutes after the draft before agreeing to a two-way deal with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2021. At the time, minutes were up for grabs in Los Angeles after the Lakers agreed to a blockbuster trade that sent Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and the No. 22 pick in the draft (Isaiah Jackson) to the Washington Wizards for Russell Westbrook and a pair of future second-round picks in 2024 and 2028.