Lakers' Austin Reaves on Doubters: Want to Look Back and 'Tell Everybody to F--k off'

Not every Los Angeles Lakers fan is convinced that the breakout second half of Austin Reaves' 2022-23 season was enough to justify the four-year max extension he signed in July.

Reaves plans to prove them wrong.

"For me, that's the stuff that keeps me wanting to get better. And that's the reason I've gotten to where I am," Reaves told Clutch Points' Tomer Azarly. "I've said many times I want to be able to, when I'm done, just look back and tell everybody to f--k off. Like, I did this and I didn't do it the conventional way. It took me the long route. There was a hard way, you know, undrafted, two-way, regular contract, and then stuff panning out. But that'll never change, that mindset will always be there."

Reaves' new deal will earn him $53 million over the next four years.

After beginning last season on the bench, Reaves broke out as a 19.8 point-per-game starter in the final 11 games of the regular season before helping the Lakers reach the Western Conference finals.

Reaves told Azarly he has heard comparisons between his extension and "the Jeremy Lin situation." Lin was never able to precisely replicate the success he found in the breakout 2011-12 New York Knicks season that earned him a lucrative three-year offer sheet from the Houston Rockets.

Like Lin, Reaves entered the league as an undrafted player.

After getting his start by means of a two-way deal with the Lakers, then playing his way into a standard NBA contract, Reaves described himself as an "underdog."

"I think that underdog chip, for me, it'll never go away, regardless of how high it goes," Reaves told Azarly. "I genuinely believe that — there's always people that doubt but — there's a majority of people that still doubt what I'm doing."

Despite Reaves' role as the third-most prolific Lakers scorer in the 2023 postseason, his success has come in a relatively small sample size. He's made 57 career starts, 26 of which came in the final two months of last regular season and playoffs.

Reaves can say all the right things this postseason, but until he is able to continue prolific production rates this fall, public doubts about his extension will be inevitable.

Luckily for Reaves, he will get plenty of chances to prove doubters wrong. Lakers head coach Darvin Ham confirmed Thursday that Reaves will be one of the team's starters this fall alongside D'Angelo Russell, Anthony Davis and LeBron James, per The Athletic's Jovan Buha.