LeBron James' message to Luka Doncic was notably the opposite of what he once told Kevin Love

LeBron James has a new co-star and this time around, it is going to feel a little different playing with Luka Doncic than any other teammate.

Back in the day, when LeBron played alongside Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving on the Cleveland Cavaliers, he had a cryptic tweet likely aimed at his power forward.

It was one of his most iconic subtweets (although he has many) that he ever posted: He had encouraged Love to "FIT-IN" and not "FIT-OUT" so together they could do something special.

Flash forward ten years, and now playing alongside Doncic instead of Love, the messaging was the total opposite. Those words were intentional. LeBron wants his new teammate to just be himself, and he even let Luka have the final name mentioned during their  player introductions.

Whereas he once wanted Love to try to blend in as more of a role player and spot-up shooter, the times have changes and these are totally different guys.

Doncic is an offense into himself and can basically do whatever he seeks to do on a basketball. LeBron, meanwhile, is a decade older and knows that for the first time, he is no longer the best player on his own team.

That title belongs to Luka, at least for now, and the best way that Luka can maximize that is to play like himself. Don't change any aspect of who he is because that player is not the one the Lakers traded so much to land.

Instead, he ought to just play the best version of his own basketball and that is what will lead Los Angeles to tremendous success. So long as LeBron can still turn it on in spurts, too, the Lakers are in good shape.

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This article originally appeared on For The Win: LeBron James' message to Luka Doncic was notably the opposite of what he once told Kevin Love