Los Angeles Lakers center Jaxson Hayes made a major announcement following their 121-94 preseason loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday. Hayes revealed he is working on getting a Slovenian passport to play alongside Luka Doncic on the international stage. The 25-year-old later confirmed after practice on Sunday that he is seriously looking into getting it and explained his motivations behind it.
“We have the same agent,” Hayes said, via Dave McMenamin. “And my parents and [Luka’s] parents are kind of all working on it right now. They came to me with the idea, and I think each national team gets one [naturalized] player or something like that. So yeah, they brought that to my attention.
“USA doesn’t do open tryouts,” Hayes continued. “And I feel like there’s guys they invite to the USA [training camp] that shouldn’t be there. So, I wanted to just play on that stage. I’m going to do whatever it takes to play on that stage… Obviously, I would love to go represent my own country, but we don’t do open tryouts.”
Hayes, who was born in Norman, Oklahoma, wants to play on the international stage and recognizes he’s unlikely ever to get a chance to represent the United States. It is quite interesting that he claims some undeserving players have gotten tryout invites and you wonder who he was referring to.
As Hayes pointed out, FIBA allows teams to have one naturalized player on their roster. If you are wondering what that means, it’s a foreign-born player who obtains citizenship or a passport of a country to play for the national team. Hayes and Doncic’s agent, Bill Duffy of WME Sports, previously represented Anthony Randolph, who became a naturalized citizen of Slovenia and helped them win the gold at EuroBasket in 2017.
Hayes, who averaged 6.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 0.6 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game in 2024-25, is hoping to do something similar at the next major tournament, which would be the 2027 FIBA World Cup. He may not be an elite center, but you could argue he would be an upgrade at the position for Slovenia.
Doncic doesn’t have a whole lot of talent around him when he plays for his country, and that was evident at the 2025 EuroBasket. He averaged 34.7 points, 8.6 rebounds, 7.1 assists, 2.7 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game in the tournament but was only able to get Slovenia to the quarterfinals.
JJ Redick on Jaxson Hayes Wanting To Play For Slovenia
Lakers head coach JJ Redick was asked about Hayes wanting to play for Slovenia and he thinks it would be great for the big man. Redick explained how his own experience with the national team helped him.
“I looked at my USA Basketball experiences and I had a bunch of them … they were all invaluable to me because you’re learning around great players,” Redick said. “And then, you’re also learning a different way to play, in some ways. The international game is very different. And I think for him, if it ends up happening, getting that connection and chemistry with Luka would be awesome.”
Hayes’ and Doncic’s chemistry on the court improving would be an added bonus. You’d imagine this is something that will happen eventually, especially with Doncic’s family working on it as well.
Hayes’ focus for now, though, would be on the Lakers’ season opener against the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday at 10 PM ET.
