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Seven years ago, the Dallas Mavericks made magic happen when they drafted Luka Doncic. Saturday night, the magic went away when they traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers.
By Spencer Galloway | February 4th, 2025
Photo by Matt Goodman/D Magazine
Late Saturday night, my phone lit up faintly in my peripheral on the opposite side of the couch. Not enough to distract me from my first-ever watch of Wes Anderson's 'Grand Budapest Hotel', I let the first few X and iMessage notifications slip by without a care, but curiosity inevitably got the best of me and I had to check-in. The trade deadline is looming, after all, and I had been anticipating news of De'Aaron Fox to the Spurs (not-so-subtle foreshadowing.)
Looking scatterbrain at my phone's lock screen, I read the names Luka Doncic, Anthony Davis, and Shams Charania, and the words "no way", "WTF" and "hacked", not at all in that order but it was enough for me to immediately be intrigued, but dismissive. I am, after all, friends with a number of those who fall victim to 'NBACentel' posts. Quickly I saw the influx of reporters doubling down on Shams' incredible scoop and that's when the "holy f---ing shit" mode kicked in.
That was it for movie night, now it was time for refreshing X, Reddit, podcast feeds, and anywhere else that might have fed me more information about potentially the biggest trade deal in the history of the NBA. Hell, I even put SportsCenter on the TV. SportsCenter. In 2025. Not even the one with SVP! (I did come to regret this decision.)
The details of the trade did not seem the slightest bit correct, as there's simply no way that's all the Mavs came away with. Only one first-round pick? No mention of Austin Reaves, or Dalton Knecht? No players of note outside of Anthony Davis? (Sorry Max Christie, value is relative here, and we are talking about Luka mf'ing Doncic.)
If a week ago, I had asked you the question "Hypothetically, if the Mavs traded Luka, what do you think they would accept back in a trade?" For starters, you'd probably lead with "Well, they wouldn't do that!" Then, you'd probably go on to say something along the lines of "But, probably at least two good young players and 5+ first-round picks. I guess. Why are you asking such a stupid question anyway?"
That at least sounds like it's in the ballpark of solid value return, but it is nearly impossible to win a trade when you're sending out a 25-year-old who is a five-time First Team All-NBA player who just put on his cape and carried you to your first finals appearance in over a decade. Did I mention he's only 25?
You absolutely would not pinpoint the Lakers as a team that would have anything of near or equal value to even get Dallas to return their call, let alone be a team that would win the Luka Doncic sweepstakes. That's just it though, isn't it? There was no sweepstakes. There was no bidding war, there were no rumors, murmurs, or speculation. Like a thief in the night, the league's most famous franchise swept up a global phenomenon to guarantee their future
beyond LeBron James' inevitable retirement in the coming years.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall of GMs' and league executives' bedrooms (not like that) as the news broke late Saturday night. It sounds funny to say that most all of them were unaware of even the potential for a Luka Doncic trade, though it seems that's exactly the case. Outside of the Lakers, who were likely also surprised that they were presented with this deal, no other teams even had an inkling that Doncic was made available. If they had become aware, so would all of us bottom-dwellers.
The fake trades and jersey swaps alone would have shown Nico Harrison the value that he could have secured in a deal for the crown jewel of his franchise. Watching, listening, and reading the quotes coming out of Dallas is both hysterical and mind-boggling, but no matter how they try and spin this, they continue to come up short. If you haven't yet, I implore you to watch the oh-so-awkward press conference given by Nico Harrison and Jason Kidd.
Photo via r/Mavericks/Reddit
Harrison says during the presser that he and Kidd are aligned, despite Kidd not knowing about the deal whatsoever. Harrison goes on to joke, I guess, about the future of the Mavs, stating "The future to me is 3-4 years from now, the future 10 years from now, they’ll probably bury me and J-[Kidd] by then. Or we’ll bury ourselves.” I actually think there are a number of Mavs fans that would bury Nico Harrison today, probably with a great deal of pleasure. Judging by Jason Kidd's facial expressions while seated next to the Mavs' GM, I might even include him in the aforementioned.
It's not at all unique for a GM to operate independently of a head coach, actually, this is a rather common practice in the NBA. This situation, however, calls for the all-hands-on-deck, war room approach, rather than simply shooting a text to your team's head coach letting him know the guy who just backpacked them to the Finals is out. I'd wager that Kidd was probably more involved in trades involving Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington than he was for Luka & AD. Trades that Dallas has made in the past year, and brilliantly done, might I add.
I was skeptical of trades that Harrison and the Mavs had made, doubting the ability of Kyrie to not only make himself available to play but commit himself to being Luka's number two. I was skeptical of bringing in P.J. Washington, and again with Klay Thompson. I didn't like that they lost Derrick Jones Jr. or Josh Green, but time and time again Dallas has made very sound moves that have solidified their place among contenders.
Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images
Luka had missed 27 games for the Mavs at the time of the trade, but they have remained inside of the playoff picture. Something weird about this is that they waited until Luka was set to return to move him. They were about to plug in one of the league's most brilliant offensive engines to a team that was desperate for his return. Instead, they chose to punt on a seemingly inevitable playoff run, and if we're going based on past performance, a deep playoff push, maybe even a repeat run to the Finals, should not have been out of the question.
Let's try, and I mean really try to see this through the pessimistic view of the Mavs' brass. Luka, over the course of his last five All-NBA First Team campaigns, has at times had a poor attitude, displayed too much negative emotion on the floor, wallowed around when searching for a foul, has screamed in the faces of refs, shouted expletives at fans, displayed a lack of effort on defense, been in poor basketball condition, and has missed time due to injury. Yes. All true. Argue their order of importance, or to the exact extent that each of those things is true, but they are all true or have been at one point or another.
Maybe in year seven, at age 25, the Mavs would have hoped for a more polished, more in-shape, more emotionally sound face of their franchise. Fair enough. Though he's become the standard of how a franchise cornerstone should conduct himself, not everyone can be Jayson Tatum (wink). In due fairness to Luka, it must be mentioned that he has dedicated himself to the Mavericks since he was 19 years old, brushed off any mention of ever leaving for another team, has displayed his warrior spirit on the court, has played through injury, made room for Kyrie, held himself accountable, and reached the highest stage of competition just this past summer.
Doncic was a grueling pain in the ass to watch in game four of the NBA Finals, as he dismembered my Celtics in the only Finals game I attended, of course in hopes of watching Boston complete the sweep. Despite no team in NBA history coming back from down 3-0 before, I had an ever-so-slight bit of doubt creep into my mind that night. Watching how Luka got to whatever he wanted, and how he completely controlled every individual aspect of that game, I thought maybe something had flipped for him and the Mavs. Maybe they could do it. It's certainly all that any Mavs fans could discuss on the journey out of the arena. They had hope. Down 3-0, against a team that had just ripped their faces off in the three prior games, those fans had real, almost tangible, hope.
That is what Luka Doncic can provide you that very few players in this league can. Kyrie and Anthony Davis, do not fit that mold. They also do not fit the mold of what Nico Harrison feels was one of Luka's weaknesses, which is health. Anthony Davis is 31 and is not likely to age gracefully given his size and lengthy injury history. Kyrie Irving is 33 and has notoriously missed significant amounts of time for all manner of reasons. Yes, a fully healthy Mavericks team will be a tough out this season. Davis is a destroyer of even the most potent offenses, and Kyrie can still make magic happen with his deep bag of tricks and mind-bending level of shot-making. Klay has been a reliable weapon from three, and Dallas' frontcourt depth is exceptional.
This is a really good basketball team! Unfortunately for Dallas, there are 10 other really good basketball teams in their conference alone. Dallas, up until Saturday, could have been considered for being more than just a really good team. They could have been considered special. That is all but gone now, however, as they just sent what makes them special, to the west coast. A number of teams have been lucky, or unlucky, enough to have been home to Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis. Only one team, however, had been lucky enough to be home to Luka Doncic. Just like how only one team is lucky enough to be home to Nikola Jokic. Or Giannis. Or Jayson Tatum. Or Steph Curry. Or Kobe Bryant. Or Tim Duncan. Or Dirk Nowitzki.
Teams that come into these types of players, these once-in-a-generation, hell, once-in-a-LIFETIME type of talents, hold on tight. They fight tooth and nail to keep them under their roof and will pay whatever costs are associated with doing so. Even if the number has never been $345M before, I guarantee you in the next three seasons that a team will pay more than that to retain a player of lesser value than Luka. It's the business. If you weren't ready for the costs associated with winning, with housing a global superstar, who will earn you all that money back more than two times over, you shouldn't get into the business of owning an NBA team in 2025.
Photo by Jerome Miron/USA Today Sports
Mark Cuban famously said he'd rather divorce his own wife than see Luka leave the Mavericks, jokingly, I assume. But also maybe not jokingly! He has made the Mavericks his livelihood for more than 25 years, the same amount of time that Luka has been alive! No matter your stance on Mark Cuban outside of basketball, one must admit that he is the best kind of owner for a sports team. Deep pockets aside, he is a fan of his team and would always act in the best interest of the team, moreover, he acted in the best interest of the fans. (Hey Mark! If you're interested in getting back in the game, we'd love to have you in Boston.)
It was announced following the finals that Cuban would no longer be the lead of basketball operations, with new governor Patrick Dumont granting Nico Harrison near complete autonomy over basketball ops. Something the new leadership of the Mavericks is currently missing is the feel side to sports ownership. You can know the numbers, watch the games, and call in consultants and analysts, but there's just certain shit you do not do. Trading Luka Doncic by your own volition, completely and totally unprompted, is not one of them.
This is oddly the complete opposite of "new owner syndrome", most clearly depicted by Phoenix Suns owner Matt Ishbia. Ishbia was not even fully confirmed as the owner of the team by the time he gave James Jones the okay to pull off a trade for Kevin Durant. The Suns then went on to get Bradley Beal, in their attempt to pull off a big three of their own. Ishbia wanted to make a statement. He wanted to win over the belief of the fans and let them know it was all about winning. Yeah, the Suns probably gave up more than they needed to when it came to acquiring KD. Yeah, Bradley Beal with a no-trade clause was really not a great move. No matter, the Suns built around their homegrown star Devin Booker and never left their intention to contend in doubt.
Dallas' new ownership seemed to be on the right track! They made all the right moves as detailed earlier, and appeared to be all in on Luka's version of the Mavs. Whether they care about the basketball side of things at all notwithstanding, it benefits them greatly to have Luka for the foreseeable future. It's no secret they have big plans for a new arena, one that they would like to double as a casino, given the background of the Adelson family's business ventures. If I wanted to sell tickets to fill up my new arena, you can guarantee I'd be all in on maintaining Luka Doncic as part of my future. I've never been a ticket sales rep, but I know I wouldn't want to be one fielding calls for the Mavs this morning. I actually would pay to hear some of the calls they are taking this morning. Netflix is probably already setting up cameras if they haven't done so already.
The Mavs' billionaire owners aren't stupid, at least I would not assume they are. Though I could have, and easily did guess that fans would congregate at the newly constructed Dirk statue outside of the American Airlines Arena, maybe they didn't see that coming. Maybe they haven't been around the team long enough, or know the love that the MFFL crazies have for Luka, to have guessed this level of outrage would ultimately be the outcome of the deal.
There is still so much more to unpack with this deal, like you know, the actual basketball fit for both the Lakers and the Mavericks, but we likely have a little bit of time to prepare ourselves for that as Irving, Davis, and Doncic are all in the middle of missing time for their respective teams. I am beyond excited to break down Luka and LeBron and how they will fair on the floor together. I can also all but guarantee that they will land some form of rim protection via another trade this week. (Robert Williams, anyone?)
Photo via NBA.com
No matter if you are a Mavs fan, a Laker fan, or a fan of another team, this trade shook you to some extent. We don't see moves of this magnitude really ever, and there's plenty of evidence for that. I do not think there is another move that could be made between now and Thursday that would even come close to this level of shock. I don't think I'd even blink if KD was traded back to the Warriors, at this point. (Okay, I'm lying. That would be pretty cool.)
I love this beautiful game and the crazy league that supports it. The drama is unparalleled by any other league and is more so rivaled by network television dramas. Rather fitting this news is the leading story in the week leading up to the Super Bowl! The only person more pissed off by this than Mavs fans is Roger Goodell. Don't worry, he'll manufacture a newsworthy headline by day's end I'm sure.
This deal also serves as a reminder that no player is safe and that there is no fake trade crazy enough, just so long as it involves the Lakers. Ha.
"Time will tell if I'm right", said Nico Harrison on Sunday. Not to spoil the answer for him so soon, but I am willing to guarantee that he is not.